The Blooded
by Personification of Fluff
Summary: AU. SM, IKa: [COMPLETE] The vampires now need the blood of a witch to make their secret weapon work but the slayer has vowed to kill all vampires. Can Kagome's fate be changed? Can Sango save her soul? And can they still pass English with Kikyo?
1. The Start of an Interesting Ride

**Title:** The Blooded

**Rating:** R, for language and violence

**Author:** PoF

**Summary:** How to write it without giving it away? AU. Returning to the sleepy lake city where their mother grew up, twins Sango and Kohaku see it as a chance to start over again. However, life seems to be against them as their school is run by a horny jock, they have a resident witch, and oh yes, the fact that there are vampires taking over the town. M/S, I/Ka.

**AN:** Well, another story. This one will probably take a while for me to write. I have a vague idea of what's going on, but I also want to make the chapters nice and long. So yes, I'm well aware that somebody has probably done the whole vampire/Inuyasha deal to death, so you ask yourself, what makes this one stand out above all the rest? Easy. The writer is totally unhinged. Come on! Kohaku as a Star Trek geek? That's cute!

Oh, and yes, this chapter is supposed to be completely confusing, and no, you aren't really supposed to know who is who, because that makes it all the more interesting for when the plot starts to roll. I did promise a drama here, folks!

Oh, and if anybody has an idea for what to make Sesshy, please, go ahead and give me suggestions, because I don't quite know yet.

As always, enjoy, and tell me what you think!

* * *

**Chapter One: The Start of an Interesting Ride**

THWACK!

His face shot to the side with the impact of her punch. The world spun as he stumbled back, another aggressive punch swinging his head to the other side with the same empty, hollow sound. His enemy lunged forward, weapon in her free hand, and she slammed it into his chest with all the force her small size could create. It barely penetrated the breast bone that protected the creature's still heart.

"Shit." The shock of suddenly having a wooden stake protruding from his heart lessened the man's confusion. She had to do something fast, otherwise it just wasn't going to go over well. The man lunged for her, his teeth bared, and she swore again. Her front leg drew close to her back leg, but the vampire didn't recognize the attack position.

She could smell his rancid breath as he suddenly became frighteningly close. All her weight rested on her back leg, her first leg being used for balance. It also left it free for attack. When he was within distance, she snapped her leg forward, aiming for the protruding stake. He ran right into her await foot, and the stake plunged through his heart.

Dark blood ran out from around the wood in his chest with a slurping sound, and piddled to the ground below in soprano notes. His face, beautiful in death, contorted from pain. Staking was a painful death. He fell to the ground, and the force of his impact made his body explode into a dusty cloud, which then scattered into the wind. The stake, freed from its rotting prison, was left spinning on the ground.

The girl picked it up and cleaned it on her black pants. She looked at the specks of dust still left on the ground, and her pink lips frowned, her eyes saddening. She hated killing, even if what she was already killing was already dead. Sticking the stake back into its sheath, strapped to her wrist and hidden under a flowery long sleeved shirt to hide it, her eyes narrowed. "You're not the vampire I wanted to find tonight," she mumbled, as if it were an apology. Her gaze moved up to the rooftops of the crippled lakefront, where two shadowy figures stood watching her. The salty sea breeze picked up again, ruffling silver hair, and she shuddered.

The vampire never should have been so stupid as to try and attack and bite her. He should have fled when her first attack failed. "Fool," she told him, and maybe herself. "You're not the vampire who will kill me."

* * *

On the rooftops, the two men watched her leave. One stood with his arms crossed, looking unhappy in the wind of the lakefront. He swallowed hard, licking his lips as she sauntered into the night, perhaps looking for another vampire to kill. The second stood as if he were more comfortable staring down at the land of the inferior human beings.

"One measly human being stands between us and taking over this entire city," he told his companion, hoping the fight they had just witness would smarten up the taller man. "One measly human being that _you_ were supposed to kill when we learned of her pathetic existence. Now she doesn't have to use her powers to kill our kind. She's become strong enough to do it by herself. She could ruin everything. You need to fulfill the promise that you made to me, and kill her. Kill her tomorrow night."

His companion's face saddened, and then he shook the feeling away. He whirled on his friend, glaring at him. Only several hundred years of developing a shield to the glare worked to protect him. "I'll kill her when I'm fucking ready to kill her. Until then, I'm hungry. Let's go hunt." He glanced at his Rolex. "The late night movie should be getting out now. Don't you just love teenagers who disobey their parents and go out on a school night? What are you in the mood for?"

The first speaker thought about this, and his carefree looks slowly became more determined, his long fangs not able to stop his large smile. "I want a couple." His heart began to pound with excitement as he thought of the hunt, the bite… unable to kill because it aroused suspicion, the hunt and the first bite had become the most important part of the evening.

Couples were his favorites. He loved trying to pick up the woman, and then watching the foolish alpha male continue thinking that after dark he was still the strongest, or the fastest. He loved slowly guiding them away from the others, knowing his pack-mate was watching him, and then he would start making out with the girl. Whether willing, or even if he had to use a little mind-control, he didn't care. Then, as he lifted his face, he'd make sure to show the male his long fangs, and all the power held within his steely body. Then, right in front of her, he'd take the girl. He'd sink his teeth into her neck, feeling her blood, the life and power that kept him from trying to kill all of humanity fill his mouth, sustaining his life for another night.

That's when they would find out whether or not the man was deserving of being called the alpha male. Sometimes he would run, and then the taller vampire would have the joy of physically hunting him down, wrestling him do the ground and biting him, laughing the entire time. Or he would try to fight, and he would get to protect his friend from the human male, and fight him, drawing it out as long as possible, trying to cause as much pain as possible without killing the pathetic human. Sometimes he thought that his fights were what kept the hospital in business. Eventually though, the man would become a victim too, and when they woke up the next morning, neither of them would remember a thing.

"A couple it is, then."

* * *

The next morning, in the bright sunshine, the humans emerged again in droves, unable to even believe in the existence of such things as vampires, or any of the other monsters of the night. Kohaku, one of the poor witless souls of the day world, leapt from his bed. Tangled in his sheets from a restless sleep the night before where he dreamt his twin sister was fighting for her life, he crashed straight to the floor.

Untangling himself from his blankets, he grabbed his bathrobe from the back of his desk chair and ran across the hall to his sister's door. Without knocking, he ran right inside and jumped on the lumpy bed. "Sango! Sango wake up!" he shouted, pinning his still slumbering sister to the bed and attempting to peel her comforter off of her. "Why do you always sleep so much? It's our first day of school here! Aren't you excited about going to school?"

"No," she groaned from under the pillows. "I'm excited about sleeping in for ten more minutes." Kohaku heard her yawn from under the pillows. "Go on to school Kohaku. I'll be there later on."

"You better not be late on your first day at this new high school, Sango," he warned as he climbed off her bed. "If you do, Mom's going to kill you. Try not to get a detention, either."

After a quick shower and trying to rid himself of a bowl of oatmeal without eating it, Kohaku was getting dressed. He carefully went through his closet, glancing now and then at the sport posters around his room. All his favorite belongings, like his collection of Start Trek and Star Wars books, his rock collection, or his medical dictionaries that his father had gotten for him for his birthday, were tucked safely away. He didn't want them getting out, in case he was lucky enough to make a friend on this first new day.

'Not everyone gets a second chance,' he had told himself while he had been unpacking. 'I am. We are.'

After the divorce of their parents, the mother of the twins had announced that they were moving from the big city back to the quiet town in which their mother had grown up. Their mother knew she could get a job their, and they had recently acquired their grandmother's house. Kohaku saw it as a chance to reinvent himself so that he wouldn't get called a geek or picked on everyday in class for wanting to grow up and work on examining life from other planets. For his sister, on the other hand, for her it was supposed to be a punishment, or maybe a re-education plan. Her grades had been failing, she had been caught sneaking in late a few times, she was constantly getting in fights at school and getting detentions for unfinished work or being late to her morning classes. Their mother had thought it was the theatres, the raves and the university parties that had made her daughter go from being just like her younger twin to being the school bitch. That was also part of the plan of moving away to a city that hosted all of two movie theaters, one mall, a main straight consisting of three blocks, and one club, that would only admit underage people one night a week.

'The outfit,' Kohaku said, 'has to be perfect.' He wanted to be accepted the moment he walked in through the doors. He passed by the leather jacket he'd gotten at a thrift shop from the city, and went straight to tight acid-washed jeans. He changed his ear-band, going to one set with a piece of amber. Unable to pull off the punk-rocker look because of the freckles over his cheeks and bridge of his nose that refused to go away, he trimmed down the look with a white t-shirt and a blue dress shirt he left completely open. The color made his hair look a little lighter, bringing out the streaks of blond. He tossed his favorite pair of sunglasses on his head.

Checking himself over in the mirror, he thought he looked perfect. He threw on his lucky running shoes –they pinched a little, but he'd kicked a winning goal in them, so he could bear with the pain for one day- and raced downstairs. He hoped on his bike, knapsack swung over one shoulder when he heard his mother call from inside the house.

"Don't forget to wear your helmet!"

He swore and removed his glasses, pulling on the helmet. When he got halfway to the school, he threw it in his bag and he put his glasses back on top of his head. Kohaku rode his bike right up to the bike rack. He jumped off and brought it into place, and was in the midst of doing the bike lock up when someone grabbed the back of his shirt.

He was hoisted up to his feet by the hand, and found himself looking up into the eyes of a tall boy. His hair was swept up into a high ponytail, but his bangs escaped from the band. His eyes were dark, his hair was black, and wore a blue leather school jacket. Kohaku noticed the snake tattoo on his wrists and automatically knew the type: school bully.

Rule number one of going to a new school: take down the hot shot on campus.

"Kid," the dark-haired man growled. "You're in my spot."

Telling himself to think of it as nothing more than a soccer match, he merely lifted his chin proudly and balled his hands, getting ready to throw a punch. "Funny," he snarled, "I don't see your name on it. If you want to make sure this mistake doesn't happen again, tell me your name and I can teach you how to write it."

"Are you saying I don't know how to write my own name?" he demanded, trying to lift Kohaku up further. He found he couldn't. Kohaku may have been slender like his sister, but he was built just as strong. He'd taken down guys a foot and half taller than him on the field.

Kohaku laughed. "Funny, that's exactly what I'm saying. You must be dumber than I thought. You couldn't even recognize an insult." The black haired boy's face went red from rage, snarling and breathing heavily. Kohaku gave his final push. "Your momma must have been blind to have sex with a pig." He reached out into his pocket and pulled out a roll of Breath Savers, offering it with a kind smile. "Mint, piggy?"

His feet touched ground again. Still awaiting the start of a fight, Kohaku was surprised when the senior merely grinned and ruffled his hair in an affectionate manner. "You got balls, kid. What's your name?"

Surprised, he shook his head, rearranging his disheveled hair and his glasses. "Kohaku." Had he been accepted merely because he had tried to pick a fight? Becoming popular was easier than he thought!

Taking the offered Breath Saver, the man sucked on it thoughtfully, introducing the two jocks behind him. "I'm the football quarterback, Kuranosuke." He draped his around Kohaku's shoulder and led him toward the school. "Welcome to Sandy Cove High. On the outside it looks like your average high school from some movie about some female-gets-the-guy-she-wants bullshit, but allow us to tell you how things really are."

He began to point out things to Kohaku. The Principal was a beautiful woman dressed in a tight fitting black suit. Leering, Kuranosuke licked his lips. "You should see her when she gets mad. Half the fun of getting into trouble is getting to be alone with Ms. Kagura Saunders. Those guys over there dressed all in black are the drama crew. We have a great drama class here, so we don't mess with them. It's pathetic, but the drama class makes more money then the theatres when the plays come out. Now, the guys in the field are all the other jocks and their girlfriends, which is pretty much most of the cheerleading squad. That's where we can always be found. The preps hang out at the front of the school, and no prep has that much guts as to take on a guy taller than themselves on their first day at a new school."

They began to head towards the field. The other two boys were met with bouncy, giggling vacuous girls, but no girl greeted Kuranosuke with kisses or hugs. Kohaku looked up at his new mentor curiously. "Don't you have a girl?"

"Of course. She's in college right now, that's all."

Somebody snickered, and dodged Kuranosuke's fist. "He failed biology so he didn't get to graduate last year. His girl friend left him to go to college. They're still together, but you know she's fucking the college guys behind your back!"

Before a fight could break out, the entire field went quiet. Somebody dropped the pen they had been chewing on and the sound of it hitting metal bleachers was like a gun shot. Walking across the field was a girl the same age as Kohaku. She was dressed in Birkenstocks and a long wrap around skirt a pretty shade of blue. She wore a white peasant tope underneath a thin, tight leather jacket. Her knapsack was a draw string purse of soft material that looked handmade. A large necklace affixed with various tiny gemstones accentuated her breasts and completed the look of peasantry and pride. She looked like a girl from the past that had gotten a job in some high-end business. She sipped at the Sobe in her hand and walked unmolested through the field. As she neared the school, the crowds parted to let her by, all sounds of conversation dying in a hiss.

"Who is she?" Kohaku muttered in a single breath, all the air caught and captured from the girl walking across the field.

His new friend narrowed his eyes. "Kagome Higurashi. She's a junior, like you. She's beautiful, graceful, smart, and she's also a witch. The whole town knows it. She's the one who cursed me so that I couldn't pass biology."

One of the single girls stood up and rolled her eyes. "Like maybe the whole not studying thing didn't help in that failure." A pretty girl, she was also a junior. Her black hair was put in pigtails, and she wore long boots that raced under her printed skirt. She had a red wrap around her waist, her top the same hue to give her pale face some color. Unlike the other girls in the field, she wore no make up, her beauty coming from the good aura around her. Freckles sprouted on her cheeks, and there was a tiny gap between her two front teeth. Kohaku didn't remember ever having met a girl that was so naturally cute before. She smiled at Kohaku and offered him her hand. "My name's Rin. Want me to show you where the office is so you can pick up your class schedule?"

He heard Kuranosuke give a growl at her offer, but Kohaku accepted it anyway. Rin smiled and giggled. "Aw, you're pretty cute. Don't mind Kuranosuke. He just wants to protect his little sister." She leaned her head on his shoulder. As Kohaku walked to the office, he felt like the luckiest man in school. Whispers went through the crowds of people at their lockers, and he knew they were about him. Everyone wanted to know who this new cute boy was, and why the least available girl in the entire school was leaning on him.

Then he heard new whispers and the crowd broke for a tall, slender girl to make her way to the office. Her long brown hair was swept up into a ponytail, but her hair still reached half way down her back. She wore pink-tinted sunglasses, the kind that John Lennon wore. A bronze bordered belt accentuated the curve of her hips under her hip-hugger bell bottom jeans. A small amount of muscle was visible around her hips before flesh met long sleeved shirt. Her shirt was a no-nonsense brown, with a picture of a black jaguar sitting on her chest with a proud chin, a bubble from its lips reading: 'Dangerous when provoked'.

The shape of the shirt was loose, but nothing could hide her beauty or her curves. She looked like a magazine model, and she had a power in her stride unmatched by anyone else. To the people at school, seeing the grace in her step and realizing how true her shirt was, they were reminded of Kagome, though nobody dared mention the blue eyed girl's name out loud.

Kuranosuke whistled, impressed. He grinned and pushed past his little sister and Kohaku. "Pardon me, I have a new chic to greet."

"What about your girlfriend?" Kohaku demanded.

Rin snorted with disgust. "My brother really is the stereotypical dumb jock. He has rocks for brains. He doesn't know how to spell 'loyalty' let alone give the definition of 'monogamy'. The man's a troglodyte. My parents gave him all the brawn and saved the brains for me."

Startled at her intelligence, thinking she was exactly like her brother, Kohaku was slow to realize the danger, or what Kuranosuke was intending to do. When he became aware, he tried to go after the jock. But Rin held him back. She wasn't as tiny as she seemed, either. "Let him do what he wants. You don't want to get on his bad side. He needs to learn this lesson the hard way."

Sango was aware of the eyes on her, but her level gaze was locked on the office. Then she felt the air move close to her, lifting the hairs on the back of her neck and cooling the skin on the side of its source of origin. She shifted to the source of attack, but not before she felt a hand land on the back of her jeans, and squeeze. Hot breath rolled down her cheek and she was vaguely aware of some cheap pick up line sported by breath that reeked to her advanced senses.

_Nobody_ ever touched her like that.

Without thinking, she spun around and grabbed the hand on her derriere. She pulled and gave a twist of a single hand. The boy went down, shouting in pain and she applied further pressure to his wrist. Her foot slammed down on his armpit, locking his arm in place. Before she could put on the final finishing move and snap the asshole's wrist, strong arms grabbed her shoulders and pulled her off of him.

The principal stormed out of the office. "What's going on here?" she demanded, seeing that two of the jocks had wrestled down a new girl and that Kuranosuke was huddled against a locker, rubbing a sore wrist as he tried to get up. She went for the two jocks wrestling down the girl. "Let her go! Right now!" They backed off, and the girl stood up, tossing her long hair over her shoulder.

She pushed her glasses back into place, and for the first time Kuranosuke noticed the look in her eyes. Her brown eyes were determined, intense… and completely and utterly cold. There wasn't a spark of warmth on her face, except for the circular pink glasses she wore. She dusted off her shirt as Principal Saunders looked around.

"Does anybody want to tell me what happened, or do I have to take names and interrogate you all one by one?"

Kohaku held his breath, his face concerned. He heard Rin take a breath, but then she closed her mouth and shifted to hide behind him, scared. Kohaku was focused on his sister. 'Please, Sango, find a way out of it! Don't get yourself into trouble already!'

One of the guys that had wrestled Sango to the ground spoke up. "Kuranosuke was just going up to try and greet the new chic, but then…."

Sango practically leapt down his throat. "Excuse me? _Greet_? _Chic_? The bastard came up and groped me! He touched my ass! Nobody lays a hand on me!" She shook with anger. If she wasn't in school, all of them would be in a world of pain. She would have broken Kuranosuke's wrist faster than his nerves could tell him that his hand was broken, and then when his sidekicks tried to wrestle her to the ground she would not have had to hold back her strength. Two human males? She would have thrown them into the lockers with such force that she would have broken their coccyx and given them a concussion.

Kagura sighed. She knew the way the schools were run, and she hoped that somebody would be able to help the new girl. She snapped a look at the boys. One look from her red eyes and they were scrambling to help up Kuranosuke. "Get him to the nurse's office to have him checked out. Then get to your class. The bell's already rung. Come and see me at lunch time."

She then turned to the rest of the school. "If anybody can verify her story, come and see me whenever you feel ready. No one will find out who you are, I promise you. This will be entirely confidential. I urge you to come forward. Until then," she turned to Sango. "My office. Now. You can go to the nurse's office as soon as the teachers tell me those three boys made it back to class. The rest of you, you know where you're supposed to be."

As Sango followed Kagura to the office with a look of obvious distaste, Rin wondered out loud who she was.

Kohaku gulped. "That's my twin sister."

* * *

Crossing her legs on the edge of her wooden desk, Kagura looked at the pretty girl who sat grumpily in the red polyester chair. "Listen, I don't know what things were like in your old school. Maybe having been in larger school has turned you into a crazed bitch, but I don't tolerate that kind of action in my school."

Her brown eyes widened, and she gripped the handles of the chair. "That asshole attacked me! I was defending myself! I regret that I _didn't_ manage to break his wrist before his buddies decided to use me as target practice. I was using self defense and you're trying to tell me that I'm going to get detention just because I defended myself against his lechery and assault?"

"Defense or not you were still fighting. Unless someone comes and agrees with your statement, we don't have any proof that you're telling the truth. If someone does, then we can get him kicked out of the school for a week or two, but I can't expel him, as much as I want to. His father is on the committee, and I can't expel him without their approval. He's also the star quarterback, and as long as he keeps on winning us games, we'll keep on getting grant and prize money. Maybe if we win this year's state championship, I might be able to get the school to put in the video cameras I've been demanding since I became the principal at this school," she added with a hint of resentment.

"You know that they aren't going to do that," a soft new voice spoke up. Sango turned in her seat to see a pretty girl standing in the doorway. Her soft black hair was pulled back into a braid, her skin looked like porcelain, and she had a smile that would make the coldest of men blush, but it was the eyes that captured Sango's attention. The eyes of the girl were bright blue, the color of electricity blue. They made her stand out like a sore thumb.

The principal sighed and relaxed. "I can keep on hoping. Is there something you wanted? As you can plainly see, I'm busy right now."

"This concerns her. I was there. I saw him grab her."

"You know that they'll never believe you if I take this up to a higher power. I can give him a lengthy detention, but I can't do anything else because your name _will_ come up. You also know that when I give him detention, Kuranosuke will come after you for it."

"He would come after me even if somebody else came forward and told on him," she wisely pointed out. "Give him what punishment that you can." She smiled again, and offered Sango a hand. Whatever sadness the other girl had been feeling as she spoke of Kuranosuke was washed away as she asked Sango if she needed help finding her classes or going to the nurse's office.

Sango was about to decline, but she thought better of it. This girl made her curious, and they always say to hold your friends close and your enemies closer. If the girl was her enemy, than this would be the perfect place for her. She took the girl's hand and was helped up out of the chair with surprising strength. Sango gave the hand a tiny squeeze as she shook it, and the pressure she applied was reciprocated. The girl was strong. Kagura swore she heard a few bones crack when they shook hands.

They smiled at each other, both as curious as each other. This was going to be the start of an interesting ride.


	2. The Keetle's Pot

**Disclaimer**:  I do not own Inuyasha.  Plain and simple.  Anything I don't own in this chapter will appear in the next disclaimer, as I don't want to ruin the surprise.   Oh, and look: ©Larkin, 2004.  Nifty, huh?

**AN**: I missed the series finale of Angel!  Noooo!  cries

Izu:  I feel almost bad for making Kuranosuke such a jerk… you know, if I'd even met the guy in the anime.  Kohaku needs a bigger part. nods

Demon Ex-Barbie: Inuyasha is indeed the silver haired man on the roof. nods   And I love ass-kicking, swearing, no-nonsense Sango.  There's something so… respectful about her.  I do love the Beatles, especially John Lennon.  When I was little and I listened to the Peppers album non stop, I wanted him because of the glasses and the fact that he was wearing my favorite color.

Tsuki:  Wait till Inuyasha starts walking around in boxers.  Now there's an attention grabber!

Aamalie: Shh!  You'll ruin the secret!

Rogue:  Ah…. There aren't any Buffy tones in this…. hides behind Spike-sama  Defend me from the wrath of Joss Whedon's lawyers, Spike-sama!

Lily Thorne:  I have been connecting to the dark side, getting in touch with my inner Vader.

Morlana:  Trigun and the Lost Boys?  The Lost Boys I can see, but Trigun?

Mybyrdy-chan: Dude, this is what happens when I get insomnia and watch Buffy at one am in the morning!   My muse is back… mostly.  I will use her until she is exhausted again, though! (Oh, will I!)  And it's funny… I had thought of some of those suggestions for Sesshy myself.  I think you find out who he is… around chapter five.   Write more, but I am putting my host to sleep by ignoring him.

Ladies and gentlemen… Kouga… and chapter two.

**Chapter Two:** **The Kettle's Pot**

            About to say something in a cheery voice, one that held no resentment or sorrow for over thirteen years of ridicule for being different, the blue-eyed girl was interrupted when the sounds of heavy, fast footfalls resounded in the hallway.  The owner of the sprint down the hallway ran right by them, then he skidded to a stop and hurried back.  He was breathing heavily and looked like he was afraid a dragon might suddenly snatch him up, but he was a good looking boy.

            His eyes were also blue, though not as bright as those of the girls.  His hair was the darkest of brown, bangs held back by a headband and the rest of his hair pulled out of the way.  He was dressed much in the same style as the female friend that had diverted his attention without saying a word.  The headband was tie-dye to match his t-shirt, and his jeans were the baggy kind that had gone out of style several years ago.

            Sango tried not to hold her nose as his scent reached her.  He smelled sickeningly sweet.  In the school, with the scent of the cafeteria, the bleach on the floors, perfumes and colognes form lockers, his smell wasn't that bad, but Sango made a note to get close to this boy.

            "Kagome!"  The young man leapt on the girl that had saved Sango from the principal's office.  His arms went around her and he lifted her up off the ground in a great big bear hug.  There was a look of obvious pleasure on his face, and Sango found the whole scene so disturbing that the corners of her mouth twitched.  She willed the smile away.  "I haven't seen you in ages!"

            Kagome wrinkled her nose and wriggled out of his grasp.  "Kouga, you haven't seen me since last night.  You really need to stop smoking up, I think," she said gently, patting his broad shoulders.

            The man suddenly grasped the hand on his shoulders, and bowed his head.  "My sweet Kagome, I assure you that I'm not the least bit high.  Okay, half an hour ago I was, but… not _now_!  It's merely that even one night without you feels like an eternity!  Without you by my side, Kagome, I bleed, I swoon, I pine!"

            Sango raised an eyebrow as Kagome growled in frustration and smacked Kouga upside the head.  Was that idiot trying to quote Shakespeare?  If he was, he'd gotten the line very wrong.  She shook her head.  'Men.  They're such idiots.'  It wasn't really that Sango was sexist, or that she had a low opinion of males… she had a low opinion of the whole world.

            "Don't you have any manners at all?" chided Kagome.  She pointed at Sango.  "How dare you go and embarrass me in front of someone like that!  Introduce yourself already!"  She sighed dramatically, even though Sango could see the smile hidden under her hand.  Sango's eyes then slipped down to the pentagram ring on her ring finger.

            Kouga stood up tall, and gave Sango a very tiny bow.  She was unimpressed.  "Xander 'Kouga' Courrier, at your service.  And I do mean 'at your service'."  He fished out a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Sango, who received it with some aversion.  "And I do mean anything.  Whatever you want, I can get for you, within reason… okay, basically, you're looking at pot, and that's pretty much about it.  But eventually I hope to set up shop myself.  The only service I can't provide is that of an escort.  You see," he leaned forward, his blue eyes locked on Kagome as she rummaged in her knapsack.  "I'm taken.  Kagome doesn't like to mention it, but she's hopelessly in love with me.  We're going to have four kids."

            He suddenly pounced on Kagome as she pulled out a Joey Louis and handed it to him.  His free hand wrapped around her shoulder and he drew her close to give her a peck on her cheek.  For all her chiding earlier, she didn't seem to mind, and the trio proceeded to walk down the hallway together. "You're a saint, Kagome.  Breakfast, everyday, without asking or anything."  He mockingly pretended to wipe a tear from his cheek.

            "I haven't bothered fighting with you over those fattening things Momma buys since I was in grade two," she pointed out.  Kagome looked around Kouga to face Sango.  "So, in case you haven't caught on, I'm Kagome Higurashi.  Don't ever call this guy Xander unless you want to wake up with a bunch of frogs in your bedroom.  He did that once to some guy in grade seven.  It wasn't pretty.  We all call him Kouga; even the teachers.  Your name would be?"

            "Sango," the brown eyed girl replied.  She stopped walking and faced the door to the science lab.  "This would be my period one class.  Thanks for your help, Kagome."  She made a move to step forward, but then hesitated, and turned around to find Kagome looking repulsed as Kouga tried to inhale the chocolate snack.  She felt a little uncomfortable.  Sango wasn't used to owing people, but from the conversation in the principal's office she knew that Kagome had been sticking out her own neck just to help the cause of justice.

 "If… if that Kuranosuke guy tries to do anything to you, no matter what time of day it is or anything, I want you to call me."  She pulled out a pen and ripped off a portion of her class schedule so that she could write her number on it.  She gave it to Kagome, who stuck it in her bra after explaining she had no pockets.  "I want to make sure he'll never touch another girl like how he tried to touch me.  It's people like him who turn out to be the people of the world that make this place such a hell to live in.  Anything I can do to help correct that mistake… would be a blessing."

Kagome frowned.  Her cheeks went a light shade of pink, and Kouga continued to eat.  "Listen, Sango, it's best if you don't tell anybody that I was the one who helped you.  It's best if you just don't tell anybody we've even talked, not if you want to fit in.  People… don't exactly like me.  Oh, they like Kouga just fine, and leave him be because he's their 'party connection' or whatever you want to call it, but Kouga's the only one in the whole school who likes me.  If anybody so much as finds out that we talked in private, they'll spew some crazy bullshit about brainwashing or something, and then they'll ostracize you.  Just, save yourself the trouble, and forget that we ever talked, okay?"

Putting her hands on her hips, she scoffed.  "Why the hell would I go and do a thing like that?  You're the only one in the whole school who was willing to help me.  I've been at the bottom of the barrel before, and there's no way that I'm going to let someone else stay there by themselves.  I'm a shitty friend, so you probably won't want to hang out with me, anyway.  It's just… trust me, I won't fit in either, so we sore thumbs should stick together.  Besides… _laetus salutas, laetus relinquis_."

With that, she turned and walked into the science lab, leaving behind a shocked Kagome.  Kouga followed her inside.  As Sango stood in the doorway waiting to be admitted, Kouga slammed the door and sauntered to his seat in the first row, apparently used to the eyes of twenty-nine other students watching him enter class.  The teacher looked up from the book at the sound of the door slamming, and Kouga wiggled his eyebrows in silent hello.

As the teacher realized there was someone else in the room waiting to be admitted, Sango scanned the room.  Her eyes narrowed when she saw her twin seated in the very back row and sharing a textbook with a very cute girl.  Sango felt a hot stab of betrayal slam into her heart.  She knew her brother had been there, in that hallway.  She had been as aware of him as she was of her own body.  Of everything that she had ever expected, her brother not coming to her rescue had never been one of them.  Kohaku was a good kid.  She loved his admiration for life of all kinds, his dedication to his studies and the things and people he loved… apparently she was no longer one of them.

In his seat, Kohaku gulped.  The bond that the twins shared thrummed with intensity, the waves of anger rolling across the room to strike his own heart.  She knew that he had watched, and she knew that he had done nothing.  He had been planning on helping her!  He just couldn't do it while Kuranosuke was there with him… if he had, everything he had been able to gain in one bold move would have been lost.  Kohaku didn't want to get slammed into lockers or get swirlies anymore.

The teacher approached her and she handed him the note from the office to excuse her lateness.  That's when she noticed that there was only one free seat in the whole room, and it was right beside Kouga.  Sango swore under her breath, looking away and no even bothering to hide her disgust when he patted the stool next to him.

            'How many hours is it until graduation?'

-

            The cafeteria was crowded, stuffy, and loud.  She could smell sweat and burning food, the sounds of metal forks scraping against knives stabbing her sensitive ears.  Sango really didn't want to be in there.  When she saw her twin go and sit in the popular area, again sitting beside the girl with the freckles, she knew she couldn't go in there for more reason than just the noise and smells.  She didn't want to see him.  It still hurt, and would only make her brother uncomfortable. 

Sango turned about and found her way outside.  The fresh hair was cool, a bit salty from the ocean only a ten minute drive away, and it smelled of wet grass.  Sango saw two figures sitting on the football field and recognized the blue skirt and the tie-dyed t-shirt.  As much as Kouga was starting to get on her nerves, she thought she could enjoy talking to the calm and sensible Kagome.

            Sango couldn't manage to smile, as much as she wanted to appear sweet and friendly to them.  "Mind if I join you?  The cafeteria's a bit too loud for me."

            Kagome smiled up at the tall girl, but her smile was kind of sad.  "If you do, you can pretty much guarantee to be at the bottom of the barrel for the rest of your high school life, but the female company would be more than welcome."

            Without a moment of hesitancy, Sango crossed her legs and sat down, her tray in her lap.  She looked down at her own soggy mashed potatoes, greasy chicken, and unidentifiable brown goop, then at Kouga's sugar-crammed lunch, and at Kagome's salad, tuna sandwich with lettuce, and the rest of her carrot Sobe from that morning.  She pushed the tray away, losing her appetite.

            "How did you learn to speak Latin?" Kagome inquired, trying to stab a crouton with her fork.

            "My father's a doctor.  He taught me."  The first half of her statement was true, but the second half was a lie.  Sango could speak any language, speak any language.  She was fluent in every major language of the world, many minor ones, and a few dead ones.

            Kagome gave Sango a very patient smile, still trying to stab the crouton without breaking it or making it crumble.  She was a very pretty girl, Sango again realized, once you got used to the boldness of her blue eyes.  Sango might even be a little jealous, deep down.  She didn't consider herself that pretty.  "I see," the smaller girl muttered in a breathy voice.  Was she nervous?  Kagome's fork wavered.  "And how did you come to know the Wiccan Creed?"

            "I've met a few Wiccans before," Sango said with all the truth she could.  She had known Wiccans before, and some of them had been very nice people.  Others, she had been forced to kill.

            The male in their trio looked up from the Passion Flakey he was dissecting.  His eyes landed on Sango and he narrowed them, angry, clearly trying to protect his Kagome.  Sango felt a flutter of nervousness from the strange, blue-eyed boy.  Was he able to tell she was lying, somehow? The thought made her nervous to the point where she briefly considered needing to take Kouga down.  Nobody should be able to tell through her lies.  Her face too perfect, her voice too controlled.

'Kouga and Kagome are friends; if Kagome is a witch, then what could Kouga be to her?'  Sango had met witches before that had turned their familiars human, or who had kept friends with vampires and werewolves.  Could Kouga be sonme sort of familiar or demon?  Could he even possibly know that Sango wanted to stay close to Kagome to make sure she wasn't one of the witches that would hurt people?  Sango was starting to think that her earlier belief had been the right one; Kagome seemed too sweet to be able to hurt people.  The meant that it would be okay to try and _really_ make friends with Kagome!

            Her fears were relieved when Kouga's expression softened very lightly and he asked: "When did she ever recite the Wiccan Creed?"

            "In the hallway," Kagome patiently explained to her friend.  "The Latin she said roughly, and I do mean roughly because there's probably something wrong with the grammar –goddess knows that I'm not good enough with Latin to know- translates into 'happy you meet, happy you leave'."  She pursed her lips, momentarily giving up on her battle with the crouton in her Caesar salad.  "Although technically the verb _relinquo_…"

            "Aw, Kagome, don't start talking about school during lunch time!  You're ruining my appetite!"  He gestured down at the dissected Passion Flake.

            Sango winced.  "You not still planning on eating that, are you?" she inquired, hoping she didn't sound too disgusted.

            "Of course."

            Kagome rolled her eyes and went back to stabbing the crouton.  "You'll have to pardon Kouga's eating habits.  He lives off of food like that, and he does play with most of it.  You should have been here yesterday.  He used the mashed potato to make a sculpture of Miss Saunders."  Her eyes slipped over to the untouched tray and to the ants beginning to explore the edge of the orange plastic rectangle, searching for a way to get to the so-called food it held.  Kagome opened her Tupperware and handed Sango the tuna-fish sandwich.

             Hesitating, Kagome smiled at her, and Sango accepted the food.  Her stomach gave a roar of pleasure as she bit into the tuna.  She hadn't eaten since last night.  She had slept in too long and she had missed breakfast, so this new, edible food was a godsend.  Sango didn't even like tuna, but she loved the way Kagome had made the sandwich!   She wolfed the first half down faster than Kouga had with his Joey Louis.  Sango heard giggling and looked up to find that Kouga and Kagome were laughing at how fast she was eating.  Sango went bright red, blushing for the first time in her life.

            Kagome recovered first, and let out a growl of frustration.  "Stupid fork!  I give up!  Forks are so stupid!  Why in the world would you try to _stab_ something when you can just as easily pick it up?"  She tossed her fork in her lunch bag and dug around in her draw-string knapsack until she found her chopsticks.  The crouton was deftly picked up and devoured.

            "So where are you living, Sango?" Kouga asked as he began to work at putting his Passion Flakey back together again.  When she told him the address, he nodded approvingly.  "It's a good area of town.  Kagome's only a few blocks from you.  Me, I live out in the country.  This Friday is the all ages night at The Wall.  It's pretty crowded, and some of the music sucks, but it's a decent place to go if you like dancing and stuff.  I just want these guys to get to play some Pink Floyd, or Rolling Stones or ACDC or something!  You up?"

            Paling slightly, she bit her bottom lip.  "I would really love to go to this club with you, but I'm kind of busy that night.  Actually, I'm kind of busy every night.  If there's something going on after school, before nightfall, than I'm up for anything, I just can't do anything after dusk."

            "That's all right.  I'm busy most nights too.  Kouga just wants a girl to go out with him."

            "A hot, beautiful girl who won't be the least bit interested me so that Kagome won't get jealous and curse the whole town," Kouga teased, correcting her.

            Lunchtime quickly came and went.

-

            Sango had two afternoon classes with Kagome, English and Mathematics.  Sango was pleased to find out that Kagome was good at mathematics; maybe she could ask for some help.  She had no other classes with Kouga, other than her History and Science in the morning.  Sango did not see him again until the end of school.

            Hurrying to get to her detention (and trying to work out a way to explain to her mother why she had been penalized for fighting on her first day at her school) Sango didn't notice him at her locker until she slammed it shut and he was standing right behind her.  Used to such surprises, she was barely shaken, but she shot him a glare that would make most men freeze in their shoes.  From the smell of his clothes, she knew that the only reason why Kouga was not quaking with terror right now was because he had lit up during his fourth period spare and was still feeling the affects.

            Before Kouga could ask a question, she picked up her bag and ran away.  "Sorry, Kouga!  My mother's going to kill me if I get another detention from being late to this one!  See you tomorrow, Kouga!"

            Left standing in the hall way, Kouga shrugged and turned to her locker.  He had only wanted to know if he could leave some of his stash in the locker overnight.  His own locker was too crowded to have any room for even one more small bag.  Shrugging, Kouga picked up the lock.  Of course she'd let him use a small, inconspicuous corner of her locker!  They were friends now, right?  He scratched his chin.  'Now, what was her combination?  I just watched her put it in…'

            Fiddling with Sango's combination lock for only a moment, he soon had it open.  Reaching up to put the pot in the corner of her locker, a large, ancient book caught his attention.  The gold lettering on the side had been worn away from use, the spine was cracked and splitting.  The edges were running down, and the pages were creased, yellowed with age.  However, the bronzed lettering on the front, written in beautiful, sharp letters, were still readable.  Kouga slowly pulled the book down from the shelf, holding it carefully, as if it were the holiest of treasures.

            He barely knew about the world Kagome lived in.  He'd seen it once, and it scared him, which is how he got into drugs in the first place.  After that one flitting brush past death and the world of mystery, he had learned to respect Kagome even more.  However, there were a few things he had learned, and could not make himself forget, and one of them was the importance of the book he know held.

            Quickly, he shoved the book in his bag, trying not to ruin it.  After a glance down the two ends of the hallway, the tall young man began to look through the rest of the locker, occasionally throwing things inside the bag clutched in his tight fist.  He threw in holy water, a stake, and the sheath of a knife he wondered how Sango had snuck in.  He would have taken the knife as well, but he had no way of getting it out of the school.

            Shutting the locker quietly, he bolted from the school, the sight of Kouga running down the halls of the school not an unusual one.  He hopped on his bike and took off, wondering where he could find his Kagome.  Had she made it home already?  Would she be at the shop?  His blood suddenly ran cold, an extraordinary feat considering that not even Sango's glare had had the slightest affect.

            Kagome had told on Kuranosuke.

            Most of the jocks in the school had problems with Kagome, blaming her whenever something went wrong in their lives.  They were all idiots.  Kuranosuke, however, was the biggest idiot of them all.  He'd had a thing against Kagome ever since grade seven or so.  No one was really sure why; half the students thought it was because of ineptness at everything, and the other half of the school just tried not to think about it, in case Kagome cursed them.

            If Kuranosuke found her when she was all alone….

            Not knowing where he was going, Kouga picked up speed anyway.

-

            Kagome stood in the doorway to Souta's room, and slowly went in.  The blue walls were far from comforting, the scent that enfolded her was painfully familiar.  Kagome fixed the baseball cap that hung from the bottom bed post, and smoothed out the wrinkles on the bed before she sat down.  She slowly reached for the pillow and clutched it to her chest as she fell back on her brother's small bed.  She stared around at the Ninja Turtles, He-Man, and Bart Simpson posters on the walls, the pennants secured to the ceiling with tacks he used to cut himself on, and the karate trophies on the tops of the bookshelves.  His X-men collection sat untouched, next to the textbooks that he had been in the middle of reading.

            She felt tears beginning to come to her eyes.  What would he be like now, her little brother, if he hadn't been killed?  The world of fantasy wrapped itself around her, and she could almost imagine her little brother sitting at the desk, struggling to get through his geography homework while an open Wolverine comic distracted him.

            He'd be taller, and she bet the all the girls would be interested in him, except that he'd be teased in school.  Luckily, her brother would have a few moves he could use to defend himself, and he would be able to avoid some of the hardships Kagome had barely endured.  Maybe he might even grow into his own power in time, and then she could help teach him, learn from her some of the magical skills he would master. 

            She could still remember what it was like to feed him as a baby, watch him learn to crawl, to watch him win at tournaments and celebrate birthdays, to hold him close when he got scared at movies, or after her father had died and he used to cry himself to sleep.  She'd come in the bedroom and join him, crawl into bed with him and wrap her arms around him and weep with him until they both feel asleep from exhaustion.

            She could still remember what it was like watching him die.

            The doorbell rang, interrupting her memories.  Alone in the house, she sat up and dried the tears from her pink cheeks.  She would prefer staying and day dreaming, trying hard not to reminisce about the incident that had changed the lives of all of the people in her family, but it could be someone important.  Kagome checked herself over in the hallway mirror before opening the door.  It didn't look like she had been crying.  That was one of the things she had gotten used to hiding.

            "Kouga!  What are you doing here?"

Noticing how tired he looked, she wrapped her arm around him and helped him inside.  She led him to the kitchen, where she sat the tired boy down and fixed him a glass of water.  She sat down next to him at the table and took his free hand in hers, waiting for him to be ready to tell her why he looked so startled.

Kouga guzzled down the water and then grabbed his knapsack.  He unzipped it and emptied out the contents, spilling out a few stakes, the container of holy water, the sheath, and the heavy book.  Drawn to it, Kagome picked it up and read the title.  Vampires.  She felt the blood drain away from her face, her cheeks standing out.  The room felt a little hazy, and her skin was cold.

"Where did you find all this?" she asked in the whispery tone of voice she had when she was scared or in awe.  Kagome began to slowly open the book, daring not to open it more than a few millimeters.  The book smelled nice and musty, reminding Kagome of the shop where her mother worked.

He leaned forward, lowering his voice till it matched Kagome's whisper.  "Sango's locker."  He watched Kagome blink in surprise, then continue flipping through the book in her hands with a considerate expression.  "Kagome, we've seen Sango in the light.  There's no way that she could be a vampire!  And, I know that I'm not good with this kind of stuff, but yeah, she doesn't really seem like a demon."  He scratched his head as he thought of the things on the table.  "Is she like you, maybe, a witch who hunts vampires?"

She shook her head.  "She's no witch.  She's strong though, and there's no doubt in my mind that she's fighting vampires, she's just something else."  Kagome opened the book to the page with a picture of a human girl in the act of beheading a demon single handedly with a broad sword, even though the demon was three times her size.  Kagome knew the legends; she knew who Sango was.  "She's the Slayer."


	3. The NoPromise Zone

The Blooded

An: for some reason,. The size twelve font, is like, size 30 on Word Perfect as I upload this, so I hope that everything is going to be okay. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Well, I'm afraid that I the Buffy-esque feeling will be disappearing... eventually. I have no idea where I';m going with this fic, but in t he near future, the story takes a couple of odd twists... and I still haven't introduced Sesshy!! Grin I need to find more time to write.... les sigh

And I'm so glad that everyone likes the idea of Koyga being a stoner! I was terrified that I was going to get flamed by Kouga-lovers for that one, when it's just a comedic thing. And by the way, someone called my fic a 'Mary Sue'. What's a Mary Sue? - has spent so long readings textbooks and making ice cream she doesn't know on-line lingo anymore...

Briar Noir: Why didn't I think of Miroku being a Watcher? I suppose though, that that would be a bit too Buffy-esque. The Whedon-like things in this fic are supposed to be for comedy's sake, like Kouga's real name being Xander, so on, and so forth. It's just pop culture thrown in for comedy. Besides, Miroku makes a much better vampire. Then he can be hot, sexy, perverted, and oh yeah: a member of the freaking living dead!! (Vampires are sexy, man...)

Barbie: I love the Yellow Submarine. I need to buy it and watch it at 4 am. Me at 4 am pretty much is me stoned.

Furi: huggles Thank you.

And thank you for everyone else who reviewed! I love having a full inbox! Here's the rest of the credsits where they are do, and I hope you enjoy!

Xander: Joss Whedon, Buffy; 'I bleed, I swoon, I pine'... supposed to be from Shakespeare and 10 Things I hate About You (yes, the quote was purposefully incomplete/wrong). I think that's about it. Oh, and the Slayer... Buffy again. Enjoy!

**Chapter Three: The No-Promise Zone**

The Slayer.

One girl born every generation to protect the world from the creatures of the night, borne with the speed and skill to slay all manner of demonic beasts.

"You know the rest," Kagome said to Kouga. She grabbed Kouga's knapsack and carefully began to put all the things he'd taken from Sango's locker back into the bag. "She's going to need these things if she's the Slayer. Don't say anything at all to her. I think I'm going to do a bit of divination first, make sure my suspicions are correct before I approach her."

"Approach her?" Kouga repeated in disbelief. "Kagome, she's the Slayer, right? That means that she can totally destroy vampires with just her little finger! This is your chance to take a break and maybe even retire! You don't need to fight In…"

"Don't say that name around me!" Sparks of rage –literally- flew out of her black hair. They were the same hue of snapping blue as her eyes. She advanced towards him, and though shorter than the young man, she appeared massive to him. The feeling of her furious power in the air made his hair stand on end and his body tingle as if all of his skin was being statically shocked. "Don't ever, _ever_ mention that name around me! I will never stop fighting him, not even when I'm _dead_! I don't want a vacation, I don't want to stop, I just want to see every single one of their kind turn to ash!"

"Okay, okay, Kagome," Kouga said, trying to ease her anger down. He dare not reach out and touch her lest his hands burn right off. "Just calm down, Kagome. I'm not your enemy here. I just don't want to see you wear yourself out." His own blue eyes, far less vibrant, were just as powerful as he looked down at his friend. "If this is what you want to do, then I'm not going to stop you. I'll always support you no matter what you do."

He reached out and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against his chest when she had calmed down. Her skin was still warm to the touch. He rubbed her back, making soothing sounds to calm her sobs and her endlessly repeating question, for which he had no answer. His eyes narrowed as he sat down in the chair and held her protectively within his arms. He cared for her so much, yet there was nothing he could do for her, nothing someone as powerless as him could do to protect her. He couldn't protect her from the bullies they grew up with, couldn't protect her from the pain of losing her little brother, and couldn't protect her from the vampires that haunted their town after dusk. All he could do was hold her when she started to cry, and tell her that everything would be all right, even though there was no proof that it ever would be.

'I'll fight him for you,' he silently promised her. 'I promise you Kagome, that if I ever met him, I will kill him. I'll take his life so you don't. You may hate me for it, but I know then, at least, that I'll have saved you from something. If I meet him, then I refuse to loose. I'm not going to give you another dead body to cry over. At least, not _my_ dead body.'

When she had stopped crying, Kagome and Kouga went up to her room. Kagome said she didn't want to be alone for the moment. When they passed by Souta's room and he noticed the curved wrinkles on the blankets on Souta's bed, Kouga knew why. She'd been reminiscing about her brother again. That also explained her short temper. Silently, he also wondered if maybe she was worried that Kuranosuke might swing by after his detention. The last time Kagome had rattled on Kuranosuke, she'd gotten a rock thrown through her window. It had hit her monitor, barely missing Kagome. Luckily, she'd been unhurt in the ensuing mini-explosion.

He still remembered her answer when he had asked her why she didn't just use her magic as the source of retribution, rather than seeming immature by tattle telling.

_The day when I actually start cursing people is the day when everyone else wins,_ Kagome had told him. _That's when all the rumors people have always said about me will finally have come true, and I'll be as mean as they always say I am. Plus, if I start using my powers to do harm, how do you know I won't become addicted to using it in such a harsh manner? Bad magic is like a drug to some people; they start hurting others with it and they just don't stop. When I use my magic to hunt vampires, I'm hunting creatures that have no soul, so it doesn't hurt me or my magic, and I'm technically purifying them. If I start cursing others, then my magic would become spiteful, and then I might not be able to hunt vampires anymore, or even defend myself against them. No. It's wrong that he's such a bully to people. Every time he makes a move, I'm going to be there to block him. Maybe if he gets penalized enough times, he'll finally realize what an ass he is._

Sitting down on Kagome's bed and watching her pull out her Tarot cards, Kouga silently vowed once more. He'd protect her.

-

"I dreamed of her again."

He rubbed his head as he rose from the plush bed, throwing off the velvet covers. His pack-mate stood in the doorway of his room, and merely gave the tall man a look of interest. "I'm afraid it wasn't exactly a very nice dream. I dreamt that I let her live again. I see her, Miroku, and I look into her blue eyes, and I can smell the soap she uses, the one they sell in that store of her mother's, and feel her hair on my hands, her skin on mine, and I can remember what warm is again." He stared at his hands as he clenched them, his long, claw-like nails painlessly digging into his palms.

Miroku stared at his companion on the bed, wearing only his boxers. Looking into the pain in his gold eyes, balanced by the ruffles in his un-brushed silver hair, and the frown on his lips, Miroku almost felt bad. Even the air around Inuyasha was wrought with turmoil. He sighed loudly. Miroku _had_ to be cursed with a flare for empathy, didn't he? "Inuyasha, you know as well as I do that you have to kill her. If you don't, you'll end up being killed again. Darwin was right: it's the survival of the fittest, and Kagome is not the strongest, _we_ are."

"I _know_ that!" he roared, leaping from the bed. His hair flew behind him as he stalked in the room, a literary caged animal. His upper lip curled back into a sneer to reveal his predatory fangs. "Fuck, Miroku! I don't need you telling me what I need to do, I just wanted your input! Why do I keep on dreaming about her? Why do I keep on seeing her face in my dreams? I've been obsessed with prey that had gotten away before, but then I always dreamed about the stalking, catching them, hearing their blood pump in their succulent veins, smelling their fear, and their arousal from being chased, like it was a mating ritual instead of a fight for life or death. And I dreamed about the taste of their skin, the way their blood would flow into my mouth, the feeling of their skin surrounding my fangs."

Slowing, he tentatively tested the tip of his fangs with a fingertip, feeling its sharpness, and remembering how it burned when the blood of his victims touched it. He swallowed, stretching in the moonlight of his room. His bottom lip shook from the adrenaline in his body at the recollection of his most intense dreams, and of a hunger that was almost painful. "I dreamed of hearing their heart slow, listening to their screams and watching them beg for life. I dreamed that their hearts stopped, the one part of the hunt that I'm never able to achieve."

"Except for her," he pointed out to him. "Our brainwashing won't work on her because she's a witch. This is the one bitch in this town that you can, in fact, kill." He walked closer to his companion, and his grin was far from kind. It made Miroku look more beastly than Inuyasha, and Miroku didn't even have his fangs out. His voice was just as pointed and cruel as his gaze. "Your teeth can be in her when you kill her, anything you want can be in her, you just have to kill her. If she were my prey…."

"What would you do with her?" Inuyasha inquired of his friend, his eyes affixed on the silver-washed waves crashing into the pebbled beach. "If she were you prey, what would you do with her? How would you kill her?"

Miroku rubbed his chin, and sat down on the bed. He looked around the room as he thought. Inuyasha's bedroom was almost as tastefully and exotically decorated as his own. Oriental swords hung from the wall or sat on display shelves. Masks from all cultures that were supposed to represent demons hung as a kind of border. The bedroom was cavern-like, a rich red-brown color. The bed was a king-size, the velvet duvet the same color as the walls. The room displayed the things Inuyasha was interested in, or the things he liked, but there was nothing about his personality in the room. There was nothing personal, no pictures or mementos. It was a photograph of a room that had somebody had copied, and it seemed that the owner had not yet finished unpacking. Yet his psychic scent was all over the room.

"I would want her to feel everything she made our kind feel. Corrupt her, force her to drink our blood. I'd leave her hanging in direct sunlight, the sun drying out her human body as we starved her from food and regular water, and as the sun killed her the vampire would start to take over, and be killed by the light as well. It would be the closest a human could come to turning to ash, until I started to burn her. I'd just do it little marks, maybe throw matches at her. When I got bored, I'd stake her."

He jumped back off the bed. "But then, she's a witch, and witches fight back, so her death would have to be quick. Quick, sadly, is often less fun. So, I'd either just stake her for a bit of irony, or I'd knock her unconscious and suck every drop of blood from her body." He snapped his fingers. "Come on, Inuyasha. Get dressed and washed. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," he growled as he leaned on the thick pain of glass of their loft window.

"That's because I have a bigger brain, so I use blood up faster than you do." Miroku laughed as he left Inuyasha's bedroom and headed towards the warehouse beneath their loft. 'Why _is_ Inuyasha dreaming of Kagome in such a… a manner unbefitting a predator?' he wondered as the fresh night air hit his skin. Instead of going and waking up his guests as he had planned, Miroku leaned on the railing and enjoyed the seaside breeze. He had seen this Kagome before; she was beautiful yes, and he had felt slightly drawn to her, like a hummingbird to the sweet nectar of a flower, but that was a natural response for a vampire. A pretty girl, she had to have equally pretty blood, right?

What if Inuyasha felt something deeper? What if he was drawn to her in the same way Miroku was, only it was so much more intense, that he didn't want to lose it to death? Really, it was entirely possible to say that because Inuyasha wasn't killing her, he was in fact saving her from death. The way that he dreamt of touching her, and she being human, it was also possible to say that he was lusting after her. 'Is he lusting after her body, or her heat?' he wondered.

Hearing the water from the shower turn off, Miroku stopped thinking and hurried on downstairs. He flicked on the halogen lights of the warehouse and heard several groans from behind the high piles of stacking crates. "Eh," he snapped. "It's dark out. Your ship arrives in four hours for all those heading to Europe, which is all of you lazy shit heads."

Miroku leaned his foot on one of the large crates and stared at the three vampires who were rubbing their eyes and sitting on their cots. Last night it had been four, but then one of them had been murdered by a certain blue-eyed witch. "You guys know the rules. You can clean up, and then you get to hunt. Make sure to eat a lot tonight. Watch out for the blue-eyed witch we told you about. Enrique didn't, and now he's quite dead. It was a messy thing to watch. She finished him off without any trouble at all. You can have as many bites from as many people as you want, but remember, no killing. There aren't enough humans here appetizing enough to want to hunt for everybody to go around killing whomever they want. If you want a kill, go after some wharf rats. Have fun. You have until one. Inuyasha and I will be watching you, so don't be an idiot and try to sneak a kill in again. I'm looking at you, Viper."

He shot the other vampire a look before he vanished back among the crates. They had an efficient, if advanced, game going on. Miroku liked it that way; he liked playing games, and the more complicated the game, the better.

Long ago, it had been easy for vampires to travel overseas. They merely packed up, and headed onto ships, and they survived by eating the rats so that no one grew suspicious when crew members went missing.

However, in the past century it had become harder and harder for vampires to travel in ships. Planes were easy enough, but overly crowded for the tastes of most vampires. One could go made with the sound of all that blood echoing in the cabin! There's also the matter of the length of the flight. A vampire could arrive during the day and be trapped in the terminal until nightfall. No, ships were the best way to travel. It also allowed vampires to travel with their antique belongings and personally ensure that nothing bad happened to them. Except that ships were less frequently used for traveling, now that there were planes. There were no luxury liners for vampires, let alone ones that also gave them food. So, they created one.

People –other vampires- had laughed at them at first, until it started to work. The cost was minimal, but they also asked for one antique, something most vampires naturally collected. The money paid for their business and the antiques went to a museum, waiting for the day when Inuyasha and Miroku moved their business somewhere else and needed to start all over again. They brought over vampires from Europe, Africa, Australia, or anywhere else around the world, who wanted to come to North America. They sent over vampires from North America to anywhere else in the world.

Miroku was sure that what had really sealed the deal was the promise of meals during the trip.

A blood pack came hurtling at his face. His reflexes caught it before he could tell them to do so. Miroku saw Inuyasha already sucking the blood out of his with a straw. Miroku grimaced. Breakfast was always the worst meal of the day. They had to watch over their clients, and then they could hunt after their clients were safely on their way. So for breakfast they had resorted to stealing from blood donor trucks. It tasted like plastic and it was cold, no matter how they tried to heat it up.

Miroku leaned back against the crates. 'It's going to be a long night.'

-

Sango stood in the shadows across from the dance club, the hot spot for all the teenagers old enough to get in, and all the younger adults. Sango guessed that if she were a vampire, this is where she would go. She didn't have to wait very long for one to come out of the club. He was the tall, dark and handsome kind of vampire, the ones that looked dangerous and usually dragged humans off with the rouse of going somewhere to do some new street drug, or something equally dangerous. Her eyebrows drew together as she looked at the girl hanging off of his thick arm. She was short, with long black hair that fell around her shoulders in neat waves, wearing skin tight black jeans and a top that showed off her growing chest and neck yet still being practical for dancing. Normally girls like her didn't like his sort.

She was also obviously underage.

She was also obviously Kagome.

Wondering what was going on, Sango was quick to follow them. They didn't go very far. Kagome gestured to a dark alley and said something that made the vampire grin and lick his lips. Sango waited by the entrance of the alleyway, trying to listen to their conversation. She felt her cheeks start to blush from what the vampire was telling Kagome, and then she heard Kagome giggle. It was followed by a kind of teasing growl and Sango dared to peek around the corner. She had never felt like some kind of peeping tom as she did at that moment.

The man was pressed up against the chin link fence that ran down the middle of the alley way. Kagome leaned against him, pulling off his belt. Sango's mouth dropped open. She was about to stop Kagome from doing something that was stupid and dangerous –'He's a fucking vampire, Kagome!'- when she saw Kagome flick her wrist, and she saw the steak. Kagome leaned up as if to kiss him, and he was so entranced that he didn't notice the steak in her hand until it plunged up to his heart from between two of his ribs.

He gasped for air as she pulled the stake back out of his chest and began to clean it off on her pants, though the blood that caked it was turning to ashes as well. Sango stepped into the alleyway as the body finished becoming ash, and waited for Kagome to turn around.

"That one was just a transient. We're one of the larger cities on the express, until you get to the metropolis, but you have to stop when you have to stop," Kagome said. She turned around, slipping the stake back into the holster of her pants. "So they stop here for the day and a quick bite at night before they continue to wherever they're going. You know, Sango, if you give a witch a packet of Tarot cards, there's not much that you can hide from her. Not unless you have some serious defenses up, but you don't have any. I know that you're the Slayer, but I guess that you want to know what I'm doing out here, don't you?"

Sango only looked mildly surprised when Kagome mentioned she knew that she was the Slayer. She wanted to know exactly what the hell was going on with the town before she went into any kind of rant. "Given the fact that you just seduced a vampire out of a club and into a dark alleyway to stake him, yea, I think that explaining what you're doing would be nice."

Kagome sighed, her hands lightly slapping her thighs as she walked to Sango and stood beside her, looking out into the empty street. "I've known that vampires existed since before I was old enough to read. Mother used to tell me stories about them to keep me from wanting to stay out after dark, or go with strangers. Then I was old enough to read about them, and it confirmed what Mother had always told me. It was from reading the books in our library that I read about the Slayer, about you. I didn't see my first vampire, however, until I was twelve. Kouga and I were coming back from a movie and we were attacked by one of the ones like him, a transient." She nodded to the spot where the vampire had been standing.

"Long before that time I had been able to make witch fire. I magicked some up, hoping that fire might able to slow him down, or startle him enough for Kouga to get away. Instead, he caught on fire, and he couldn't put it out, because it was magic. He ended up burning to death. After I realized that I had the power to kill them, I started sneaking out at night, taking down the vampires I managed to find. Eventually I worked myself up to the point where I became strong enough to actually kill them with a stake, but that was only recently. I still have trouble getting the stake through the breast plate."

"You realize that you can't tell anyone about me, right?" Sango asked. She was pretty impressed. A human –a witch, but still a human- was taking down vampires single handedly, without any training.

She nodded. "Kouga already knows, because he was the one who gave me the idea of checking you out with my magic. I've made it clear to him that he's not to tell anyone. I just… I hoped that we could fight together. I know that we could cover more of the city by splitting up, but I'm not that good yet, and I was hoping that by hanging out with you, maybe I could learn a bit more."

After thinking about it a moment, Sango smiled at Kagome. She felt relieved. Kagome could take care of herself, obviously, if she had been slaying vampires alone for two years. It would be nice to have a partner, someone to talk to when she was out working. It felt even more relieving to actually smile.

"I'd love for some company."

Kagome smiled in return, and they continued down the street when Kagome reported the club was empty of other vampires. They walked along in a comfortable silence, Sango thinking about asking about Kagome's library she had mentioned, when the other girl broke the silence.

"There was another reason why I wanted to tell you I knew. You see, most of the vampires we have here are just passing by. There aren't many too many of them to kill usually, and we get the odd demon, mostly ones that have to do with the ocean. However, there are two vampires who actually live here. I haven't been able to find out much about them. I'm not into torturing other vampires for information or anything, and I'm not really good with computers. That was always my… my brother's domain. Anyway, one of them, he calls himself Inuyasha. It means 'dog demon' in Japanese. You'll see how he got that name if you ever meet him. I know that he's a vampire and stuff….."

"Talking about me again?" a bored voice drawled with fake curiosity.

Sango's heart leapt in her chest when she turned to the origin of the voice. He perched cross-legged on a streetlamp, and he was radiant. Everything about him glowed. His hair was bright silver, a dull liquid metal shade in the darkness, his eyes were bright gold, and his skin was pale and smooth. He was dressed modestly, but the eyes of a girl who had lived in a metropolis all her life could pick out the details that marked the clothes as famous brand names. He wore a tight white t-shirt, the edges of his detailed muscles picked out by the lamplight, worn-in running shoes, and a pair of khakis.

He man also had two fuzzy looking ears poking out of his silver mane.

How had she not felt the power of a vampire sneak up on her? When she saw the tight red aura that clung to him, her panic increased. How had she not missed one that was so _strong_? She knew the type of vampire. All vampires had two faces: one for passing unnoticed among humans, the same face with which they had been born, and one for hunting. The latter was usually shockingly beautiful, or nightmarish, depending on the vampire and the affect they wanted to achieve. All vampires had their own special talents, ones that were a reflection of their personality, but there were different kinds of packs among the vampires as well. He obviously belonged to the ones that had the ability to change their shape slightly, taking on more animalistic qualities, hence the gold eyes and the ears.

Her new friend seemed undisturbed by the abrupt arrival of the vampire. Her shoulders almost seemed to relax, and she put her arms on her chest as she squared off against him. Her skin seemed a bit paler than normal, and Sango wondered how she could seem both so relieved and so frightened. She was scared of him, no doubt about that. Sango had no way of describing it. The closest she could come to was remembering the way Kohaku worried before going to family reunions, and their aunts. He was always happy to see them, but scared that they were going to start pestering him about what he wanted to be when he grew up, or when he was going to get a girlfriend.

"We're hunting vampires. It's boring. We need a boring topic to talk about."

"Feh." The man jumped down from the lamppost, landing on the balls on his feet and bending his knees slightly. As Kagome didn't seem aggressive towards the male, Sango didn't pull out her stake and attack him; in fact, she barely even moved. The man ignored Kagome to come and leer at her, circling around her. "Who's your new friend, Kagome?"

"Aw, that's sweet, Inuyasha. Are you actually concerned that I might be hanging out with the wrong type of crowd? You flatter me."

So this was Inuyasha! Kagome could easily see how he got that name. Why was it that when he got close to her she felt like rubbing his ears? That idea had been washed away when he began circling her. The feeling of his power crashing into hers made her feel dizzy, and the way his eyes roamed over her made her feel like she was with Kuranosuke. She wanted to stake him and she wanted to stake him very badly. "Stop that," she hissed under her breath, turning her eyes up to his.

He got a full blast of icy glaze, and actually stopped. He moved closer to Kagome, although when he threw looks over his shoulder at he seemed to be pouting, and curious. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his khakis, turning all his attention to the shorter girl. Sango wondered if he was trying to be civil. "So how are you, Kagome?"

'Oh… Oh Jesus Christ, he _is_! He's actually trying to start up a conversation with her!' Even Kagome felt a little surprised.

"I… I'm fine, Inuyasha. Thank you." She lowered her head, her fingers nervously playing with each other. Sango mentally yelled at her to get her head up. Never make yourself vulnerable in front of a vampire. "You seem to be doing well yourself."

"Not really," he shrugged. Sango wondered if this might be the most awkward conversation she had ever heard. "I had another bad dream last night." As Sango was mentally laughing at the idea of a vampire having nightmares, Inuyasha reached out and gently touched Kagome's cheek. He ran his fingertips over the shape of her cheekbones, being very careful of his nails. Surprised, Kagome looked up. Her blue eyes were calm, and hopeful, but her body gave a shiver under his gaze. She licked her lips slowly, parting her lips. "I'm going to have to remedy it soon, I just… don't want to." He leaned down, and Kagome tilted her face up to meet his, stepping closer to his body.

Sango could not remain motionless any longer. She wasn't about to let any slimy vampire kiss her new friend. Sango leapt forward and grabbed Inuyasha's arm, swinging him away from Kagome with all her strength. He went flying into a wall, hard and fast, and slumped down into the garbage bags before he could recover. She stepped between him and Kagome, and drew her stake, waiting for him to get up and fight her. She wasn't about to fight a man when he's down, vampire or not.

Inuyasha got up slowly, stiffly. He appeared to be slightly bruised, which explained why he looked at Sango with a certain amount of respect and fear. He sniffed the air, but didn't say anything to Sango. Dusting off his clothes, he looked at Kagome. "I'll see you later." He simply walked off into the night, and Sango actually let him go.

She whirled on Kagome. "What the hell was all that about? Are you two actually buddies or something? He was totally putting the moves on you, and you… you…"

"I know," she said meekly. Kagome breathed in deeply and strengthened her voice. "You didn't have to throw him though. He just wanted to kiss me. He's done it before." Sango looked as if she were going to be ill. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about!"

"You love him, don't you?" Kagome froze at Sango's harsh question. The taller girl snorted in disgust. "I knew it. You do love him. You're in love with a fucking blood sucker, a humanoid leech. That's disgusting, Kagome. I thought you at least had some class. Even if you said that you were in love with Kouga, I wouldn't have minded. At least he's not a member of the walking dead. I've seen this before. Girls fall for the bad boys, the ones that they think that they can heal with a hug or sex. It never works. The man has no _soul_, Kagome! No matter how much it must hurt you to hear me say this, or how mad you are at me or anything, _you have to get rid of him_."

Tears began to roll down her cheeks, and Sango felt only mildly concerned. Her fists shook. "You… you don't understand! There are extenuating… there's… there's an explanation to all of this, if you just wait for five seconds and _hear_ it."

"No." Sango's voice was flat, impersonal and heartless. Kagome froze. She stared at Sango a second, at the way her lips were tight and how she looked so mad! Kagome's lip trembled when she thought of how easily she had gained and lost a friend. "Go home, Kagome. I can't wait to hunt with you tomorrow night, but you've already had one kill, and you should probably get some sleep. I can handle everything by myself."

She began to walk off, and didn't look behind her as she heard Kagome call out. "Sango? Sango! Please, if you meet up with him, don't kill him! Please, Sango!! Don't kill Inuyasha!"

Her voice was strong when she answered, and Sango wished that somebody would be able to one day crack it. She'd seen the pain in Kagome's eyes, and knew that it was her voice that had caused the expression. If she hadn't sounded so disgusted, so superior and commanding, then maybe it would have been easier. Falling in love with a vampire was easy. That's why they made themselves look pretty, to make it easier to draw willing girls into their dens. If Kagome had seen some of the stuff vampires did to the girls they captured, then no amount of eyelash batting or power or ethos could ever make her love a vampire.

"I don't make promises."


	4. The Men with the Golden Eyes

The Blooded

AN: 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' is of course from Bonnie Tyler, as it blatantly says in this chapter. Also, some of the stuff mentioned in the last chapter, I forgot to credit properly. The idea of vampires having different clans belongs to Vampire: The Masquerade, an RPG to which my roommate has gotten me addicted.

Yea… so had fixed this chapter up finally, but I still don't like the ending myself. Oh well. I'm trying to expand into more of a horror genre, so this is my first attempt at anything like this.

But at least you can rely on me that the fluff will be good!

Starzki: Actually, with version 1.0 of this story… even I could smell that is was setting itself up to be a Mary Sue. ::sweatdrops:: The BtVS feeling, as mentioned before, ends fairly soon. Hopefully by then I will have captured your attention enough to stick with this story… and that I haven't lost all my precious readers in my hiatus from updating this story!

HellKeeper: My University library has complete seasons of Buffy that we take out. How wrong is that?

Demon Exterminator Barbie: Over the summertime, I realized what it is. I'm really solar powered. When the sun goes down, I lose my battery and I start wearing down.

Tsuki: later on he sleeps naked. Mm, tousled vamp Inuyasha…

Baybe: No, I'm sorry, I haven't read that book. And if you see Kagome as being "kind sluttish", I obviously need to develop her characters. She's supposed to be anything but. And yet at the same time, I don't quite like her characters in this fic. I think I need to make her more aggressive, more willing to take on her oppositions openly, but I rather like having Sango and Kagome act as foils for each other. Er… did I mention that this is my first time trying to experiment with foils too? ::sweatdrop grows:: And no, they aren't from 'Vampire High'. That book series/tv show isn't the only one who came with the idea of vampires drinking blood pacts. Remember "meals on wheels" from Buffy? The thing is, this is a city of about 30,000 people. Pretty small as cities go now a days. If they killed one person every day, they would slowly run out of people. So instead, they will balance killing with the blood pacts, giving them enough food and leaving people to hunt the following night.

Aamalie: Ah…. Dude, I don't even think she meets Miroku until chapter seven or something. ::winces:: And even then, feeling like a hypocrite is a long time in coming. If Miroku scares you, I am doing my job, and yay, if you like the Inu/Kag in this one, I am also doing my job!

Enjoy!

THE BLOODED IS BACK AFTER A LONG HIATUS!  
Let it never happen again….

**Chapter Four: The Men with the Golden Eyes**

Miroku sat in the warehouse, going through the boxes belonging to the two dead vampires, sorting it all out into things that were trash, things that were highly valuable, and things that were good for a bit of money. When Inuyasha mentioned that the new girl accompanying Kagome on her quests threw him into a wall, he nearly dropped the crystal glass he held. His bottom jaw dropped. "She threw _you_ into a _wall_?"

"Yeah, the fucking bitch," he growled, pacing the room and rubbing his sore shoulder. He paused, catching the small smile on Miroku's face that insinuated Inuyasha had gotten exactly what he had deserved. After all, once again Inuyasha had failed to kill Kagome. He sneered, a growl escaping from his mouth before he barked, "What are you smiling at, Miroku? Do you want me to prove to you how much it fucking hurt? The bitch nearly tore my arm off!"

"That's quite alright, Inuyasha. You and I should try to hunt her down tomorrow night. I want to meet this girl who was able to throw you into a wall." He leaned back, his hands behind his head and the small smile still on his sculpted face. His eyes half-closed peacefully, and he balanced himself on the storage box he sat on, practically hovering in the air. His voice deepened as he imagined what the girl who could hurt a vampire like his brother must look like. "She sounds like she could be fun. You're certain that she was entirely human? She could be a half-demon, I suppose, or some other kind of hybrid." He shrugged off his brief fantasy an continued to sort through Viper's belongings. Miroku had warned him about Kagome…

Inuyasha shook his head, still sulking. "She was fully human. I have better senses than you. Just because you lived longer than I have doesn't mean you're smarter, Miroku. I know these things. She was fully human, I couldn't sense that she had any types of special abilities or anything, she was just… strong, powerful. Physically she was able to hurt me without breaking a sweat. She's got to be a strong human if she can do that. She was also very level-headed. She met my eye to eye, didn't flinch or look the slightest bit intimidated at all. There's something about her…."

Laughing, Miroku stopped taking inventory to turn in his seat to face his friend. "You're not going to become obsessed with another woman, are you, Inuyasha? Or is this just friendly rivalry we're noticing now?"

"It's just been a long time since we've had any sport. If this girl is a threat, then it's one more human girl we can drain to the last drop Miroku." Inuyasha leaned on the chair, his hands beside Miroku and his face close to that of his friends. For two normal vampires, it would have been too close, but for pack-mates, it was simply another display of trust. His voice was low, his eyes directed and every word carefully enunciated. The centuries of living with Miroku had told Inuyasha had to press his buttons, and the one thing that manipulated Miroku more than anything was girls.

"You could take this one. She's right up your alley. Tall, slender and well built. Brown hair, brown eyes, and a great ass, just as you like them. Better, Kagome and this girl, named Sango, seem to be friends. They probably hang out together. We can kill them the way we used to, Miroku, _together_. We could kill Kagome first. You know that I might not be able to take her alone, but together… I would even share her blood with you. The blood of a witch, Miroku! Sango could watch. We could even desecrate the body in front of her, make Sango hate us, flavor her blood with horror and lust. She's only human. You could take her here and play with her. Do whatever you want with her, just let me watch as you fuck with her mind. It will be just like old times: Tokyo, Paris, Vienna, Prague, even good old London. Remember London?"

Miroku smiled fondly as he remembered all their old games, all their old hunts. 'Ah, London…' His pointed teeth were so white against the blood rising to his lips that they seemed silver. He waved Inuyasha away. "All right, all right. It's agreed. But I still want to meet this girl first, learn what makes her tick, how to best break her."

Inuyasha smiled, and grabbed the back of Miroku's head gently, lacing his slender fingers in Miroku's fine hair and drawing his pack-mate close, kissing his forehead. "Thank you." He knew he could never take Kagome by himself, but if Miroku was there, goading him on and encouraging him the way an older brother should…

Miroku's smile grew out of fondness for the younger vampire. "There's one more thing, Inuyasha, which you haven't seemed to consider. There aren't many human girls strong enough to throw a vampire such as yourself. In fact, to all my knowledge, there's only one. The Slayer." Rather than showing any fear, Miroku stretched, the black material of his shirt peeling against his build. When he stopped stretching, he continued, tapping folded fingers against lips that were still swollen from recalling the fine kills he and Inuyasha had made together. "In which case, taking down this Sango will be our finest achievement."

In Miroku's case, it would at least be his second greatest achievement. He'd already taken down one, some years ago. Miroku could still remember it well. It was one of his proudest moments. It was also one of shame.

He went back to lifting things from the crate, and he came across a small box made of solid, pure jade. Miroku puzzled about it for a second. Inuyasha saw the look of concentration on his face, and he was quiet, allowing Miroku to muse over the box. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. "What is it?"

"I'm not really quite sure." He rubbed his chin as he thought, and after a moment he tried to open the box, only to find that it didn't work. Miroku grew then even more puzzled. "I'm certain that I saw this box before, somewhere."

"See, that's what you get for being almost a thousand years old. After the first eight centuries, the mind starts to go," he teased.

Miroku smiled despite himself, and set the box in its own special pile. "I'm only seven hundred and twenty-five."

"I rounded up," Inuyasha shrugged.

"Hey, Inuyasha. Kagome has a library, doesn't she? And Kagome's mother has a shop for herbs and special things and stuff, does she not? Isn't there some sort of library in the back of the store? I think I saw this box in a book, and not one of the ones that you can get from your local public library. I need _real _books, books as old as I am. If Kagome's a good witch, she'll have the books I need. I'm going to need your help though. I need you to get me the books."

Normally, Inuyasha would have wanted more information. Just because he was younger than Miroku didn't mean he was Miroku's slave or anything! Instead, he grinned. This would give him a chance to go and get inside Kagome's house. "Just tell me what books you need."

-

Kohaku pounced his sister in the bed again, this time pulling the covers down so that he could see his sister. Sango groaned and dove her head under the pillows. Her freckled brother frowned, and slid off of her. She had reacted quickly, but he could still see the dark bags under her eyes; he still knew that Sango hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. To Kohaku, it made sense that she had missed sleep because she worried their mother was going to yell at her when she woke up. He sat beside her on the bed, his brown eyes softening in a way that Sango's never could. "I didn't tell on you. I didn't tell Mom about your detention."

This interested Sango, and she sat up in bed, holding her pillow to her chest and rubbing her eyes. "Why not?" She would have been more civil, but between being sat on to wake her up, the lack of sleep in general, and the knowledge that today she would have to deal with a perverted bully and a witch who was in love with a dog-eared vampire, she was more than just a little stressed. So to Sango, the fact that her next words were a very bitter 'is that supposed to make up for not standing up to your big sister yesterday when she got groped?' made perfect sense and was excusable.

Kohaku, however, looked simply hurt. "I was going to stand up for you!" he protested. "Just not when Kuranosuke was around. He's the guy who has control over everything that goes on in the school that Kagura doesn't, Sango! And I'm _in_ with him. I'm finally in the _in_ crowd! And there's this girl, and she's really sweet, and smart, and thoughtful…"

"You like her. It's the girl with the freckles. You like her." It took her a moment to recall that she had already said that. What was she supposed to say next? Sango yawned and started coming out her hair, wincing when she found the fine brown hair was full of knots. "Who is she?"

"Rin," he simply replied. She gave him a look that silently demanded if this girl was like Cher and she had no last name. He lowered his head shyly. "She's Kuranosuke's little sister. So you see that it's really important to me that I stay there, in the in crowd, because if I don't then I might not be able to ask Rin out after we get to know the town a little bit better. Sango, you just have to ignore Kuranosuke. He's nothing but a big bully. He…"

Sango leapt out from under her covers and smacked her brother hard on the shoulder. He rubbed the bruise already forming under his fingers. "Wrong. What I did to you, that's someone being a bully! People who go and grope girls on their first day of school; that's a pervert. And if there's one quality I hate in humans more than anything, it's found in people who are like that! It's the people who will grow up without learning to respect a woman, and stick their grubby, dirty hands anywhere they want! He's nothing but a hairy ape of a teenager who I would gladly dismember from his… antediluvian hands, and make him spend the next ten years of his life learning how to eat with his feet, that way he could get it into his primitive little mind that women aren't to be touched like that!"

She grabbed her shower robe from the back of her chair. Her miniature fight with her brother had woken her up enough so that she felt ready to take a shower and maybe eat some breakfast. Sango sighed, and stopped at her doorway, glancing back over her shoulder. Her young twin still sat on her bed, rubbing his arm. She hadn't meant to punch him _that_ hard. Sango crossed the room and gave him a kiss on his cheek, patting his shoulder for him.

"Thank you, at least, for not telling Mom. I'm probably going to get another one for fighting today. Please Kohaku, keep it a secret. I'm doing it for a good reason. Just like at the last school, I'm doing it for a good reason. You may be a part of the in crowd, but there are lots of people who aren't. I need to keep them from the people like that.

"Especially one girl in particular, because she's really very sweet, and as crazy as she is, I can't stop liking her. She just seems… naturally good. It's like… like flowers! You know, how you see flowers, and you feel so happy when they start poking their heads out of the ground for the first time, and knowing that the winter is over and that spring has arrived just makes all of your other worries fade away until all you feel is happiness, is joy at knowing there's going… going to be something _more_ in the world. That's how she makes me feel. We're stuck in the same boat, and I'm not going to let that feeling of youthfulness and wonder leave us. Do you understand?"

He shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry. It must be a girl thing."

Sango sighed. It wasn't a girl thing, he just hadn't met Kagome. She looked at the clock. Sango wanted to have breakfast, seeing as how she was up this early. If she wanted to eat, she didn't have time to try and explain it using Rin as an example. Sango really wanted to shower. All she could smell was the rancid breath of a vampire she had found and killed that night. Why vampires couldn't bathe, she didn't know…

"Is she really a witch?" he inquired, tailing Sango to the washroom.

Nodding, Sango looked at her brother over her shoulder. "I don't see why it should bother you. You've known witches before. Hell, you've known a whole coven."

Kohaku shuddered. "Yea, but those girls were all nice and pretty. Kagome's pretty too, I mean, if you can go in for girls who like poking needles into dolls and howl at the moon and stuff. But her eyes are so creepy! She looks like an alien, or like one of those school boys from that Bonnie Tyler video, um, 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'."

"Which song?"

"You know, Sango. 'Once upon a time I was falling in love, but know I'm only falling apart. Nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heart. Once upon a time there was light in my life, but now there's only love in the dark. Nothing I can do, total eclipse of the heart.'"

Joining in, Sango and Kohaku absentmindedly began to dance together in the hallway, spinning and twirling and simply generally dancing to Kohaku's cracking voice try and sing Bonnie Tyler. Before they knew it, their mother stood in the hallway, watching them. When they noticed their spectator, they leapt to opposite ends of the hallway. Sango zipped into the washroom, and Kohaku ran into his room to finish getting ready.

Their mother smiled. It was good to hear some music in the house again.

-

Sango didn't see Kagome that morning, although she did get an unpleasant surprise when she looked inside her locker and found things had been rearranged. She had assumed it was Kuranosuke trying to make a point until she found the pot hidden in the very back of her locker. Sango made a note to have a talking to with Kouga, but she forgot that he was usually late most days. It had something to do with living out in the country. When he walked into science class, she was already in her seat, ignoring her brother talking and laughing at the back of the class, and Kouga was starting to wolf down his Joey Louis.

Rolling her eyes, she settled in for a very long seventy-six minute lecture about the scientific method. As if they didn't already have some knowledge of what the scientific method was! She couldn't wait till tomorrow when they got a lecture about how to properly learn the functions of a microscope, and all its parts.

When lunchtime rolled around, Sango hurried to her locker to fetch the lunch she had prepared for herself that morning. Mr. Noodles was hardly considered a balanced meal, but it was better than Kouga's sugar-packed lunch box and the slop served in the cafeteria. She bought herself a can of Coca-Cola, any Slayer's secret weapon to surviving on five hours of sleep nightly, and she calmly walked out to the football field, keeping an eye out for a guy wearing a Metallica t-shirt and a girl dressed like someone out of the 60's…yet somehow Kagome made that look fashionable.

It was a gorgeous day outside. The sun was shining, the sky was a blue even Kagome's eyes couldn't outshine, and it was a September afternoon that felt like the middle of August. Sango didn't take very long to spot Kouga and Kagome. There was a large crowd of people out on the field. Sango cursed herself for not having expected it. Of course the popular people would have wanted to use the field for themselves when it was such a nice day. Sure enough, she could pick out her brother and Rin from the crowd of people that were slowly pushing Kouga and Kagome into the center of the circle they were forming. She also noted that Kohaku and Rin were staying well away from the crowd, looking worried and talking to themselves.

Sango threw her lunch to the ground, and bolted. She sensed the coming trouble, and if she didn't react quickly, an all out massacre was going to erupt on the football field. She singled out Kuranosuke, their leader, and went right for him. Throwing her arms around him, she tackled him face-first into the dirt.

"Sango!" She momentarily looked up to see a very surprised-looking Kagome, and in that moment, Kuranosuke threw her off. She'd forgotten that Kuranosuke was on the football team, and was probably used to being tackled. Still, Sango had no problems what so ever going Slayer on his ass and throwing him into a wall the same way she had Inuyasha the night before.

Her arrival was a catalyst in the group. Two other men leapt on Sango, trying to pin her to the ground while Kuranosuke stood over her, pounding his fist theateninly. Sango saw Kagome dodge somebody, too sweet of a girl to take on a human, and Kouga punched someone in the stomach. Rin and Kohaku were suddenly nowhere to be found.

Grinning, a crunching sound filled the air as Sango dislocated her own shoulder, allowing her the flexibility to flip out of their grasp and come up behind the two men. She kicked them both in the head with a simple roundhouse, blocking a punch from Kuranosuke when she came back down. Coming up underneath his arm, she grabbed his collar and threw him over her shoulder. Kuranosuke went down and stayed down, dizzy from the way his head had smacked the ground. Sango knelt on him, digging her knee into his sternum with just enough force to keep him from breathing and to cause enormous pain, not enough to kill him.

Gritting her teeth, she leaned down close, her delicate nose wrinkling at the stench of his cigarette filled breath, her words shoved out from between her grimace. "If I see you come near Kagome again…" She didn't have time to finish the threat.

"What's going on here?" Kagura Saunders demanded as she walked up. She saw the individuals involved, and took stock of all their wounds. Sango, bad looking shoulder and a broken lip; Kuraanosuke, flat out on the ground; Kagome, a bruise or two under her short sleeves but otherwise unharmed; most of the lackeys were uninjured, except for the ones that Sango had kicked in the head and the ones that Kouga had managed to wind or black-eye with a few well-placed punches; Kouga himself had a bloody nose.

She sighed, and motioned for the teacher that had accompanied her out to the field to help everyone into the principal's office.

Sango said goodbye to the lunch still lying discarded in the football field.

As they sat in the office, waiting to have their lecture from the principal, Kagome leaned over in her seat to see Sango. She handed the other girl another Kleenex, to dap at the blood on her lip. Her blue eyes were concerned, and they hid a layer of happiness that she had another knight in shining armor besides Kouga. The young man in question leaned over around Kagome to try and see what they were talking about. Kagome didn't seem to mind at all.

"I thought you were mad at me, or disgusted of me. Why did you come and help me today?"

"I… don't really know," Sango shrugged. Admitting to Kagome that she was something almost angelic, something… _new_ that needed to be protected would wound silly now. If even her _twin_ brother didn't understand, how could Kagome ever understand? Still, Kagome probably needed an explanation. Sango sighed and wiped her mouth, turning to face the witch. Her voice was just as quiet, so that the secretary didn't catch them talking.

"You're a nice girl. And you're the first person I've met here who I really like. I just…" Sango hesitated on her words for a second, knowing that they were rude, but not even the fear of hurting Kagome's feelings could stop her from saying what she thought. Sango's tongue was almost and dangerous as her hands. "I think that you're an idiot for falling in love with a vampire, but that's just the way things are. That's how vampires are made, after all. They are designed to seduce people, especially sweet girls like you. You also said that there were circumstances that made it acceptable, so… I want to know what they are. I want to know what circumstances there are that would make you fall in love with a soulless piece of graveyard shit. Ah, no offense."

She arched an eyebrow. "Why do you hate vampires so much? Myself, I always thought that they were a part of nature. They can be parasites that can become symbiotic, that can teach us about what life was like hundreds of years ago because they were there, and who can protect us because they're stronger and faster. There can be good ones and bad ones, just like anything else. But you see them all as bad. Why?"

Looking suddenly very withdrawn and impenetrable, she glared at Kagome, ignoring the chill in her body. "That's none of your business. It doesn't matter how I feel about them, as long as I do my job, and that is to kill as many of them as I can. They aren't natural."

"But why aren't they a part of nature? Look at every other top predator out there, Kagome. Sharks are fed on by killer whales and humans. Blue and grey and right whales are killed by humans and giant squid. Tigers, lions, bears, humans kill them all. We don't even kill them as food, we kill them for sport, with exception of whales, which we killed for fat, oil, and bones for corsets. Humans are the greatest predator on the Earth. Sure, sharks or bears or lions may kill humans now and then, but how many? Maybe one human for every twenty lions? We need a predator to keep us in check. Maybe that's what the vampires are. Or you could just believe in Ian Malcolm and Jurassic Park's idea that human beings are nature's way of creating a viral-based life form that is here for the soul purpose of acting as the avenger of god and killing everything."

"Actually," Kouga pointed out, "I think that was from The Matrix."

"I meant from the book, silly," Kagome giggled. "The movie cut out a lot of stuff."

"Or you could just look at how vamps were made. You don't know how they were made, do you?" Kagome shook her head no, and Sango snorted at her lack of information.

Kagome sighed. She really did like Sango, but why was the girl so hard to get along with? "Listen, we're going to get a detention. Afterwards, why don't we go to my house? I have feeling that you want to see the library I was telling you about. I can tell you everything I know then, and maybe afterwards you can tell me everything you know and enlighten me a little bit. If you want, you can even stay for dinner. Momma made oden, and we have plenty left over. Mom's working at the store tonight, so it's just me anyway. Then, if you want, you can go and change your clothes, and we can stake out The Wall. That's usually where everybody goes, unless you'd prefer something else. I don't know if you checked out the obituaries or not, but there's not exactly a lot of deaths here, so it's not like we could hang out in the graveyards or anything. We…"

"Kagome Higurashi," Kagura said in a dark voice when the door ominously opened.

"Wish me luck," she said with a cheeky grin, and disappeared into the principal's office. Personally, Sango was starting to understand why some of the students called the office 'The Den'. You weren't guaranteed of coming out of the office alive.

-

They walked to Kagome's house in silence. They even entered Kagome's house in silence. Kagome led Sango upstairs to the empty room belonging to her brother. She entered and sat on the bed, and motioned for Sango to do the same.

"He would be nine right now, if he were still alive. My brother's name was Souta. When I killed my first vampire, I started going out every night, and it wasn't long until Inuyasha found me. I had just finished burning someone, and he thought that he could take me. I burned Inuyasha really badly. His clothes were all ripped, and the stench from his skin was absolutely horrible." She scratched her nose, remembering it. "It just made him pissed, and he got close enough to try and bite me. So I burned him again. He tried to subdue me mentally, but it wouldn't work, and he gave up, trying to blank his face from my mind, but that wouldn't work either.

"You know as well as I do, what vampires do to someone that can hurt them and who is immune to mental manipulation. They kill them. I saw Inuyasha, he failed to kill me, so he has to try and try again until one of us is dead.

"But the next time we met, something had changed. He was… was like a puppy that had been kicked one too many times and now he was hurt. Inuyasha just hung back, staring at me and not attacking. It was unnerving, but I wasn't afraid of him. I was afraid of the things of which he was capable, but I wasn't afraid of _him_, of Inuyasha. Then he spoke. He spoke to me with such kindness. Only Kouga had ever talked to me like that before, yet there Inuyasha was, standing across from me under a full moon, my _enemy_ and yet he treated me like a real person.

"We actually had a real conversation, debating the use of CG animation in The Matrix sequels, about clothes, and even about music. We left each other without even throwing a single punch or insult, and before he left, he held my hand. He just held it a moment, tightly, and he could have shattered it… but he let it go and he walked away.

"I met him the next night too. I asked him why he hadn't killed me that night, or at least tried to kill me. I was really curious, but Inuyasha wasn't ready for such a blatant inquiry. I made him angry just by asking what was to me a simple question, but to him it was something that threatened his very way of life. He yelled. He told me that he liked playing with his food, and he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I told him to put me down, but he just smirked and moved towards the edge of a building. I grabbed his ears, trying to find something to keep me anchored to him, but he was too strong. He pulled me off of him and he held me over the edge of a building. I'll admit it, I was scared, but something deep down inside me told me that he wasn't going to drop me. Something told me that he wasn't _able_ to drop me.

"I was right. I saw the sadness well up in his eyes when he looked at me, and he drew me back in and held me. He smelled so good, Sango. His hair felt like feathers when they folded against my cheek, and I held him back, more glad to have him back in my arms than I was to have my feet touch steady ground. He told me that he was sorry, he begged me forgiveness, and I gave it to him without any hesitancy.

"There's this inner conflict in Inuyasha. Some part of him that was hidden for so long is trying to break free. The result is that he has these moods swings, where he turns from sullen to murderous in a flash, but he'll never hurt me. I don't know why. Maybe it's because he knows that if he attacks me, I can and I will kill him to protect myself.

"We met night after night, and soon I knew how I felt about him. For a brief moment, I had seen the caring, guilty human he had been in life. Now he was no more than a wronged human who had been given the power to take his revenge on life. He hadn't killed anyone, not in this town. He could have killed me, but he didn't. It really doesn't matter what I thought. It's important what I knew, and I knew that I loved him. And I knew that he loved me too. That's was the growing reason why he hadn't killed me. So that night when we met up, and we sat on top of a building and talked, we talked of going to go see a late night movie together some time, if it were possible, because I knew that he had to kill me eventually, and so did he. No matter how much of a resistance I put up, he would eventually be the victor. And as we talked, I slid closer, and he draped his arm around me, and at one point I leaned up and I kissed him.

"My kiss wasn't anything more than a quick peck on the lips, but it was enough to shake him up. Inuyasha stared at me, and then demanded to know why I had kissed him. I couldn't give him an answer. Kissing was a sign of affection, and though I had come to care for him, to slowly draw out the great man that he could be and tame the vampire, he was not ready to accept that he was changing, or that he wanted to change.

"Somehow, he knew all that. He yelled at me, called me an idiot, and a stupid child, and to him, no matter how old I would be, I would be a child. He's almost five hundred years old. I had only fourteen years of experience under my belt, compared to him and five centuries. He said that he was a monster, and that a child like me shouldn't love him because I wasn't capable of understanding him and his real nature.

"Inuyasha ran. He ran home. I didn't see him for several nights. Then, one night I cam home from slaying, and I found that my brother wasn't in his room. I looked all over the house for him frantically. When I ran by the kitchen window, that's when I saw _him_, the nameless man that looks likes Inuyasha. He doesn't have the puppy ears, his hair isn't so thick, and he looks more refined, and there are scars on his cheeks… and he had my brother."

Both girls stiffened at the description. Kagome stiffened as she remembered the fear that had gripped her heart, remembered how beautiful he was and how she longed for him in the same way that she was terrified of him, in a way that Inuyasha had never made her feel. Sango stiffened because, unlike Kagome, she recognized this man. She had been the one to give the man the scars.

"He called my brother out, and held him in his hair, waiting with him. He waited until I went inside, locked the door, and looked out my window. He looked right at me, this smile of contempt growing on his face, and the hand in held around Souta's neck tightened. That's when I saw him. I screamed. I couldn't stop screaming and crying, but no one came to help me. He'd made sure that my mother wouldn't come down and burn him into ash by taking the time it took for me to come home to slip under her defenses and will her to sleep.

"He killed Souta right in front of me. He drank the body dry. There had been so much blood… By the time my mother awoke and ran to check on me, he was gone. And by the time my mother went downstairs, it looked as though a wild animal had been eating at Souta. I had done nothing… I had stood there and screamed. The man scared me, and I could do nothing.

"And yet… it was Inuyasha who mourned with me. He was the one that held me and who let me strike his chest as I cried, demanding why my brother had to die. He was the one who told me that I had done nothing wrong. It was Inuyasha that made me feel better…"

Kagome dried the tears that had begun to roll over her cheeks, and she looked over at Sango. There was a slight amount of horror on her face, and Kagome's musical voice was flat. "You agree with Inuyasha, don't you? You think I'm an idiot for loving him. You think that I'm even more of an idiot for loving him even after a vampire like him killed my brother. My brother was a good kid. He wouldn't have wanted me to lose myself to hate and revenge. You think I'm stupid for loving him when he always tries to scare me away. He hates himself for what he's done, and what he has to do. It's like he's torn. The vampire in him wants to kill me, and the man in him loves me. That's why he looks sad when he looks at me, and why he leaves flowers at Souta's grave." She tried to swallow, and choked on her tears. "It's my nature to forgive him. Just as it's my nature to love him, and to wait for him to kill me.

"I'm a _witch_ Sango. I can see the future, when it allows me to. I've entangled myself with Inuyasha, and I have to the pay the cost, and that is to be killed by the man I love. And because he entangled himself with a witch-family and his blood will have killed two of them, his guilt will drive him to insanity, and he'll never know that I've already forgiven him. Nothing can stop that."

"I can kill him," Sango defiantly pointed out.

Kagome smiled softly, amused by Sango and her simplistic view of life, of kill or be killed. She had no sense of the larger picture. "No. It's like a chess board, Sango. You may be the strongest piece on our side, but Inuyasha will always have some way of keeping a wall between you two. Even Slayers are bound by fate."

That, sadly, was something that Sango knew too well. She put her arm around Kagome, who hugged her back and buried her face in her clothes, until the sobs of the smaller girl stopped.

Fate was something that Sango understood more than she would care to admit.


	5. The Things I Remember

The Blooded

AN: Three more weeks until exams are over! I only have three weeks to study like mad, and then I will have precisely 1 month to write lots of fanfics and edit my own stories until I am back to the old drawing board. THREE WEEKS!

And thank you to a Candace from Tim Hortons in Welland who works with my eldest friend… you have no idea how much it boosts my self confidence to know you're out there. Which means I might actually feel okay about that essay I wrote today now…

And as a little friendly reminder: this is an AU. Of course the characters are going to seem a little OOC. Do you remember anything about Miroku being the living dead in the series? No? I didn't think so.

Aamalie: Aw, I luffles you. And some of your questions will be answered in this chapter. Some won't be. And I will do my best to make this Kagome uber-cool for you. As for Miroku's vampiric talents, they aren't all that impressive. Inuyasha's are much more so because Inuyasha deals with the physical, Miroku with the mental. He's sexy, drinks blood, young, and smart! What more do you want?

Demon Exterminator Barbie: No, it won't take me months. Maybe months until I get to write a new chapter… I have some saved, and they just needed lots of editing, but now that I have the kinks worked out and know where I am going with this, it's all okay! And aren't they sexy together?

Siren: When I wrote Inuyasha and Miroku getting all snarly at each other… I'm sorry, I needed to get a drool bucket.

Starzki: Just wait until the shit hits the fan, my friend. I like being able to stretch my fingers in the new style. And vampires are so much fun to write about!

Ninaleechan: It was my pleasure to update!

**Enjoy! -**

**Chapter Five: The Things I Remember**

Sango and Kagome hadn't gotten to talk much after that, but Kagome had been able to show Sango their library. Sango picked up a book and began reading in silence, until Kagome pulled out her homework. Sango sighed and shut the thick book, knowing she should do her homework too. It took Sango twenty minutes to do what took Kagome an hour. Kagome was amazed.

When Kagome began to heat up the oden (explaining that her mother was working at the shop they owned and wouldn't be back until after supper) she leaned on the counter and looked at Sango. The taller girl was raiding their fridge, pouring two glasses of water. She looked perfectly normal, and yet… "How are you able to do that stuff so quickly?"

"Hm? What stuff?"

"Your homework," Kagome replied with a friendly laugh. Sango didn't answer, making the other girl feel nervous. Kagome hoisted herself up on the counter, stirring the oden on the stove with her right hand, able to watch Sango as she set the table with the dishes that Kagome had pulled out earlier. "Sango, what exactly makes you the Slayer? I know that it's one girl every lifetime, but how is that girl chosen? How do you find out? Does someone knock on your door and tell you? Or…"

"You always know." Sango's voice was quiet, and she slowly looked up at Kagome. Her voice grew stronger after deciding that because she really liked Kagome, she would tell her the truth. Kagome was too sweet to be subject to lies.

This was the first girl who had ever shared the night with her, and she would tell Kagome the truth. In fact, despite the awkwardness on the subject of Inuyasha, Kagome was quickly becoming more than a friend, she was quickly turning into a partner. Still, Sango was nervous about really opening herself up… to anybody.

"The Slayer always knows who she is because there haven't been different Slayers, there's only ever been one."

Before Kagome could become confused, Sango continued, sitting in the friendly, country style kitchen of Kagome's house and relating the story of her origin as Kagome played the hostess and served the food.

The shorter girl couldn't help but glance at Sango and take in everything about her that she could. Sango was stunningly beautiful, graceful and yet… there was something so ugly about her too. It was as if the outside were a shell, and inside sat a twisted heart that saw only the horror in the world. As Sango spoke, Kagome began to understand why.

"The first vampire was born long, long ago, back before there was a written word. It started with a man who wanted immortality. He was reclusive, living by himself in the woods to avoid people. He hunted animals with his bare teeth and claws, and legend has it that there was something demonic in his blood that allowed him to grow the ears and eyes of a hunter. Legend also says that it was the demon blood in him which made him want to become immortal, jealous that his brethren were still young while he was slowly dying. He was strong, immensely powerful, but he could die, and that was something the demon part of him could not understand nor accept. So, he wrote a spell to make him immortal.

"He drained the blood of innocent children, drinking it straight from their tiny, slit throats, and for his crimes, the sun-god hated him. The sun-god banished the demon from ever walking under the sun. He drank more, and more, and because the blood he drank was so young, he stopped aging altogether. He wondered then, if the spell would break if he had only the blood of children, and he caught himself a young woman, wanting to experiment. At first she was scared of his appearance. The man was shockingly beautiful. His skin was creamy white from never seeing the sun, his hair almost down to his knees, yet he kept himself clean shaven. His eyes were those of a wild animal, his fingernails resembling more like claws. And he was insane. He kept referring to himself in the third person, calling himself, 'Sesshomaru'.

"Sesshomaru killed her. He drained her blood, and found that he still did not die, so long as the creature he drained was younger than him. He also found that human blood made him feel the strongest. The strength of the soul, the power in our blood that he drank became a physical part of him, allowing him to move quietly, heal faster, and many other things.

"But much to his dismay, the girl he killed came back. She was reincarnated into a new body, and the knowledge of his existence was reborn with her. She trained for several years, and then one day left her home and tried to hunt him down, knowing what the first vampire looked like and where he was to be found. They met, and this time she resisted more, but he killed her again and she died with rage in her heart.

"During the time when she was training for a second attempt at killing this monster, he began creating more vampires. When the girl set out into the world for a third time, she found that there were more vampires she had to kill. She had to kill all of them, because she was the only one who believed in their existence. But now and then, the girl encountered one of them who was too strong for her, and she died.

"When she came back, she always slightly stronger. It was as if the powers of the vampire that had killed her had been imprinted on her. Slowly, she was bred by her death into being the perfect killing machine. She stole their beauty, the sensuality, their grace and their strength. In return she lost the part of her that made her human…"

Sango paused and touched her heart, clenching her fingers into the fabric of her shirt. Her voice was tight, her eyes staring at the oden on her plate as if it were the vilest thing in existence. "And one day, the Slayer will be strong enough to take down the master vampire. Only then can she rest."

Sango's brown eyes were filled with a fiery anger as she looked up at Kagome, still having not touched the bowl of food in front of her. "I can remember more than five hundred lifetimes. I can tell you my name in each one. I can tell you where I was born, the names of my parents, who killed me, and how. I have the hate of over five hundred lifetimes inside of me, which is why it's taking me so long to accept the fact that you love a fucking vampire; over five hundred lifetimes worth of knowledge, which is why I'm so fast at doing homework; and five hundred lifetimes worth of different languages. I have seen vampires crucify humans, seen them guillotine them during the French Revolution, seen them torture them during the Inquisition, and I have seen the bad side of humans too."

At first there was silence as Kagome tried to process this information. She felt her expression turn from surprise to compassion, and she reached out to hold Sango's hand across the kitchen table. The other girl's skin was hot to her touch, her muscles so tight that Kagome feared she would accidentally shatter herself. She believed Sango, of course. Kagome knew that there were things in the world which she could never understand, and this was one of them. The same power that had made Kagome a witch, given her magic, had made Sango, and given the Slayer her own magic. Kagome was the only one who understood her.

Sometimes, it took seeing the monsters in the darkness to understand that there were secret powers within the light as well.

"Surely you must have seen some good things as well!" Kagome protested, wondering if the blind hatred Sango felt for vampires had hidden things like joy from her.

"Oh yes, I've seen the good in humans too." Sango's voice lightened, and her brown eyes warmed, her lips curving into a smile so beautiful that no artist could ever have captured it completely. Briefly, she stared far away into things so captivating that Kagome was envious, yet still there were traces of removable sorrow on her face. "I have seen a man cross a minefield to save a crying baby. I saw the Sistine Chapel when it was first painted. I've spoken to philosophers, painters, and theologians. All vampires create is destruction. Because human beings can create things that are good, they are spared from my wrath."

Because Kagome didn't know what to say to that, she continued to eat, and the two new companions were once again silent.

Just as the light created wonderful beings, humans too could make miracles or disasters happen. Whether Sango became a demon herself was up to her. As soon as the good in the world was gone, both girls knew that nobody would be saved from the wrath of a woman scorned.

-

After circling the neighborhood and finding no trace of vampires anywhere, Sango told Kagome to go home early and got some sleep. Kagome was more than happy to oblige, and as she walked by the all-natural supply store owned by her mother, she met the vampire she had hoped to encounter that night.

Inuyasha stood with his hands in his jean pockets, looking into the dim store. Kagome was kind of amused to see that he didn't cast any reflection. That, and the aura he gave off, was the only sign that the man in front of the store was Inuyasha. It didn't really look like him. His long hair was jet black and pulled back in a loose ponytail, his puppy ears were gone, and his eyes were as brown as Sango's.

She slowly walked up next to him and stopped. She looked in the mirror briefly to see her own lonely reflection before she gently put a hand on his arm. "Hey. Are you feeling okay, today? Sango threw you into that wall pretty hard."

"I'm doing fine," he said with a shrug. He didn't even bother to say anything in greeting, but he did turn to her. Kagome thought she saw his cheeks look a little bit pink. Was Inuyasha nervous? And if so, about what?

Kagome smiled up at him, and slowly reached out to run her finger over the curve of one of his human ears. He did nothing to stop her, however, his expression changed slightly, his mouth opening a little to reveal that his fangs were missing as well. Finding his ears real, she laughed, but just once. Kagome stepped a little closer to him, her hand moving up to his hair. Black or silver, it still felt the same. "This is amazing," she breathed, taking in everything she could. "I've never seen you look human before. Is this what you looked like when you were alive?"

Nodding, he reached out and stroked her own hair, encouraging Kagome to move even closer to him. Her forehead touched the base of his neck, and his mouth opened to emit a gasp when he felt her warm breath course over his chest, right through his white t-shirt, like a knife. Her hands stopped brushing his hair to close around his back. "Kagome…"

"What are you doing out here?"

"Waiting… for you. I knew that you'd be by this way." Inuyasha wondered why she hadn't said anything else about this form of his. Didn't she like it? Did she find it disgusting? "I was hoping, Kagome, that I could see your library."

She jumped away from him, an eyebrow rising out of suspicion. "My library?" Out of everything she had been expecting, asking the use of her library was not what she had expected from him! Kagome had been expecting him to ask if he could drink her blood, maybe even to ask her to the cinema as he looked completely human, but to ask to use her library? Inuyasha simply nodded, and Kagome continued to wonder and stare. Finally, she put her hands on her hips, linking her fingers through the loops of her black jeans. "Why the hell do you want to see my library?"

"I need to find something for my pack-mate. He told me you would have them. We're just doing some research." He nervously rubbed the back of his head.

"Research, huh? Then why are you acting so nervous?" She tossed her hair over her shoulder, and pressed on by him. "Here I was thinking that because you showed up looking fully human we were going to go out or something, but instead you just want to use me. You don't even bother saying hello! Yesterday you were trying to be so civil too. It was… it was _nice_, Inuyasha. It was nice having a conversation like that. I like the way you seemed interested in me, and how you touched me. Or was last night just an act so that today I might be more inclined to let you use my books?"

He let out a long, low growl so animalistic that it made Kagome slowly turn around and stare at him. He was still human looking, but his canines did look sharper than a normal human's, and she knew that the growl was coming from his chest. His eyes were narrowed, filling with supernatural power that even Kagome didn't understand. Had she been a normal type of girl, Kagome would have felt her mind grow cloudy, felt her anger melt away and want to do as he asked. "I want to see your library, Kagome. Let me borrow one book, just one book. That's all I'm asking."

"You didn't even say please," she snapped back at him. Kagome, of course, was unaffected by his attempt at using mental control, and knowing that he was trying to control her in such a manner made Kagome mad.

Inuyasha, in turn, felt his weak control on humanity fall out of his grasp. He let out a snarl, his eyes lashing gold. In one swift move he was suddenly at her side again, pinning up against the wall. His nails dug into her shoulders, but it didn't really hurt; especially when she compared it to how it would feel with his entire claws digging into her arm if he ever _really_ lost control of himself. As she had told Sango, it wasn't Inuyasha that scared her, but what he was capable of doing to her. His teeth could rip apart her neck like a wild animal…

The same way the teeth of that vampire had ripped apart her little brother…

"I don't need to say please!" he hissed in a loud voice. "I'm stronger than you! I'm the one with all the power here! You will allow me what I want, give me whatever it is I ask you to give me!" His hand slipped up to her windpipe, and she continued to stare at him, her fear sneaking out of her in the form of tears. They dripped down her cheek, but Inuyasha was unmoved by them. In fact, he hated her tears, and mentally beat himself for knowing that he knew that he was the cause of them. Why did she have to be so weak to cry in front of him?

Despite her tears, she wasn't about to give in. Kagome's words were choked out from around the hand that clamped down around her throat. "Why should I?"

He leaned in close, and for a moment Kagome thought he was going to kiss her. His face was at the right angle, his eyes partially closed and his lips parted. His breath touched her, warmed her skin, making her shiver and lean in… Instead, he said only two more words. "Your mother."

Dropping her, she landed on shaky feet, clinging to the building to keep herself standing as she coughed to recover her breath. She didn't really need to lean on the wall. Inuyasha was so close to her that it was impossible for her to fall down. One hand rubbed her sore throat, the other dried her cheeks with the back of her hand. Her red lips shook from mental exhaustion, of knowing that the man she loved was the one she hated and that was hurting her and threatening her family. She felt horrible, and cowering between him and the hard wall pressing into her side, Kagome felt stupid and weak.

And yet… the man she had seen, the man who refused to ever really hurt her, whose voice held empty threats, who had nearly kissed her twice within the last two days… oh, how she loved him!

"You wouldn't…" she gasped. It was not a gasp of shock or of fear, merely Kagome trying to get her breath back. No, she knew it was a meaningless threat, and her voice told Inuyasha that.

Inuyasha took her by the chin, drawing her face up to his with such sharpness that her neck cracked with pain. "I have killed before, and I will again. You know I can do it, you know I will do it. Now help me!" His large hand gave her a little shake.

Under his rapacious gaze, Kagome lowered her eyes to the ground, and tried to pull his hand off her face. "Fine, fine, fine!" she snapped, finally succeeding to push his hand away. She then pushed her way by him and began to walk back home. Inuyasha pulled up along beside her, and after a long time, she raised her eyes halfway up his chest, giving the illusion that she was looking at him. "You didn't have to threaten me."

Had he been in his other form, his ears would have stood on end with interest. As he was only in his human form, his expression a little, and he kept his eyes locked on Kagome. "No?"

"No," she mumbled. "I would have given you a book or two to read had you asked me politely. Inuyasha, you have no sense of human etiquette. All you had to do was say please, and I would have brought you out as many books as you wanted." Now she was able to look him in the eye again, and found that he looked guilty once again. "You see, as much as I care for you, Inuyasha, there are two things I will never let you do. One is come into my house. My house is my haven. The second is that I won't allow you to hurt my mother. Ever."

Much to her surprise, he flinched at that statement. "I know," he quietly admitted. "That's why I threatened her. As long as the sanity in me is leashed, Kagome, I swear to you that I will never hurt your mother. The moment I lose that sanity… fuck, just find your friend Sango and let her throw me into a wall again a couple of times."

"Sanity?"

Even more to her surprise, his cheeks turned a dark shade. Inuyasha was blushing. "It's… complicated. I'll tell you some other time, when Mi… my friend isn't expecting me to come home soon. He knows I'm out with you, and if I dally, he might start to become suspicious. He knows about my problem with killing you, and he's willing to correct the problem for me. Frankly, I don't want to give him a chance to do so."

He realized how his words could be misinterpreted, and he shook his hands to wave away the bad ideas. "No, no, not… not like _that_ I mean. I meant that I don't want to give him a reason why _he_ should kill you. I figure if I keep putting it off for another few years, you'll go off to university or college, and then I can make a big show of trying to find you, and never succeeding until your old, and happily married, and of no threat to us because anything you say about vampires with dog ears is going to sound senile instead of being the truth."

Kagome giggled. "Wow. That was a fairly long run-on sentence, especially for you."

"I know. It's rather… uncharacteristic of me, but… I just don't know what to say when you're around me, Kagome. I mean, when I go home, I think to myself how easy it would have been to snap your neck," he trailed off. His footfalls fell half a step behind hers and he reached out his hand. For a moment it clasped around the back of her neck, and then it slid up into his hair, letting the dark hair shimmer, and fall between his fingers again and again. "I'm mad at myself for not being able to complete what I have to; mad at you too, for being the cause of my frustration, and furious that I had given up the opportunity to end my suffering. But then I look back, and remember how when I'm around you, I feel like I never have before."

Her breath came out in a shiver. "How do I make you feel?"

"Happy," he sighed mournfully. "I had never known what this kind of happiness was before I met you. I feel content by being with you, I feel guilty for knowing that I may accidentally hurt you, and I feel like shit for knowing that eventually I will. I mean, I feel like shit for having hurt you before, and knowing that it will happen again." He stopped talking, and drew his hand away. 'You always hurt the ones you love…'

She wondered if there was something more, and glanced over her shoulder to look at his face. He didn't seem to be hiding anything. Inuyasha simply looked… lonely. Kagome was more than a hundred percent certain that he felt the same way for her that she did for him, but she wondered if he was still unable to realize how deep his feelings ran. Kagome turned around and snuck her arms under his, wrapping them around his torso and laying her head against his chest. She sighed his name, clinging to him tightly, and in response, he held back just as tightly.

-

Sango continued to stealthily slide down the dusky streets of the town. She knew there were still vampires out there, and for each one she killed, she would become stronger. Sango wanted to be strong enough to take down their creator. It was, as far as she was concerned, her destiny. She also wanted to kill the one called Inuyasha. Although Sango knew about fate, she refused to believe that fate had condemned poor Kagome to die at the hands of the man—Sango refused to say vampire—she loved. Sango was going to destroy Inuyasha to the point where his ashes would be microscopic. She knew she would!

She'd been aware of the eyes watching her movements from the shadows for a long time. Sango had made no sign that said she knew she was being followed. That would have been foolish, and may have scared them away. Instead she kept prowling, waiting for her stalker to make a move. It had to be something of an inhuman nature to be able to follow her, she simply wondered if it was Inuyasha, or perhaps some type of demon that was hot on her heels.

Rounding the corner, she melted into the shadows behind a dumpster, and her acute senses felt the body of power stop moving. The fact that she could feel it told her that it wasn't Inuyasha. Inuyasha was an ambusher; he was much better at concealing his presence. This person couldn't have hid from a blind man. Of course, it could also mean that the person behind her had so much power, was so old, that they might not be able to control all the energy the same way a younger vampire like Inuyasha could.

'Just wait,' she told herself. 'They'll eventually show themselves in time. They'll come down and sniff about for where I've gone. Just wait.'

Up on the rooftop, Miroku swore when he lost track of his prey. He sat down on the edge of the building, and looked over at the alleyway, trying to find some trace of his prey. It was easier than he had thought. The things that she had touched were lit up in a vibrant lilac hue, and it stopped at the garbage dumpster. He smiled, and fixed his hair, leaning further over the edge he sat upon. Miroku was hardly worried about falling and hurting himself. "Hello," he called out, trying to sound friendly.

Sango heard his voice, and froze. She remembered the last time she had heard that soothing, educated voice. She remembered the way he spoke so eloquently, each word as smooth as silk and coming out his well-formed mouth flawlessly, clearly. She remembered what he had done to her.

Her body began moving before she knew what she was doing. She emerged from the shadows, folding her arms and glaring up at him. God, she was scared! But she would show him that she could still work around that fear!

He smiled when the aura changed color. She was scared. Miroku could see her perfectly well, feel the fear and anger rolling off of her. She looked different than last time, on the outside. The last time he had seen the Slayer, she had been blonde and smaller, built more like a pixie. Now she was taller, slender, with long brown hair and eyes just as dark. It was the inside that Miroku could see, the person beyond the physical layer. Yes, she was scared, all but cowering in the darkness, but he could still see that familiar strength. He watched as she wondered why she hadn't brought her crossbow with her, listening to her thoughts as she wished that he would fall and snap his neck. It wouldn't kill him, but it would sure as hell hurt. He recognized the fashion of her thoughts, and the iron core in her heart.

It made his smile grow, and he chuckled loudly. His dark eyes became aflame with interest. Had she any notion that Miroku wished to take her home and dissect her, learn more about being the Slayer, her fear would have tripled.

"I see that you remember me."

Bravely swallowing her fear, she stepped out from behind her hiding place and stood in the light of the moons and filtered streetlamps. Sango mentally cursed. How had he known that she had recognized him? Was it a miscommunication? Did he actually know that she remembered him from her past life, from the one where he had killed her?

"Miroku," she snarled. The vampire was taking aback. She actually sounded more feral than Inuyasha did!

He scoffed, and decided to reveal some of his cards, trying to unsettle her. Was she aware that he was slightly telepathic? "It wouldn't matter if I fell from here or not, Slayer. I would survive, and then I would kill you, just as I killed one of your previous Slayers."

'So he doesn't know.' Sango sunk into a fighting position, and she was not aware of how much her smile matched Miroku's. Her knuckles cracked as she made them into tight fists. "Why don't you come down here and try me? You'll find that I'm much more of a challenge than the other Slayer was!"

"Oh, no doubt. Your aura is stronger than hers, so I have no doubt in my mind that you will be a fun battle. But vampires meet you so rarely." He pouted, and he jumped down from the roof. He landed on the balls of his feet, and stood in a relaxed stance. "I want to play."

Sango had forgotten how good-looking a vampire Miroku was. His hair was nearly black it was so dark, his eyes bright violet in shade. Gold earrings shimmered against his hair, and he was always impeccably dressed. His body was well-built, and he stood with confidence and grace. It wasn't just the outside that made Miroku so attractive to her. Had he been human, he would have been just the type of male she was looking for. But he was a vampire, and that meant that he was her enemy. Sango refused to fall in the same trap as Kagome and fall in love with one of _them_.

'I learned to read auras from you. From when you drained my blood. You're telepathic; or at least slightly so, because you don't know _what_ I am… _who_ I am.' Sango did not drop her fighting pose. She knew full well what he meant when he said 'play'. She glared at him, but even that wasn't enough to make him back off. "Fight me, damn it!"

"Do you know what I did to the last Slayer I encountered?" He ambled closer to her, still smiling perversely. Sango didn't step back, but she didn't fight him back, either. She didn't know why she couldn't lunge out at him the way she wanted to. Why couldn't she reach in her back pocket and grab her stake and drive it through his chest? Miroku was wide open for attack!

His fingertips touched her cheek, and he brushed her loose hair away from her face. "Maybe if you're good girl and amuse me I'll tell you one day. I simply guarantee, that this time it will be much more fun than what I did the last time. I've had my taste of Slayer blood, and now it's time I share it with my pack-mate. I only want your tears, this time."

She made a mental note of his words, trying to suppress the shudders in her body. Miroku had to be insane! 'Pack-mate? Inuyasha… that's his pack-mate! Then that means that Miroku is also able to take on animal qualities… but he hasn't. His talent is telepathy….' Sango only had one major thought: what the hell was going on here?

Picking up on that concentrated though, Miroku chuckled, and his hand wondered down behind Sango. She felt him remove the stake in her pants. It clattered on the ground, thrown away from her. His hand pressed against her back, as he moved closer, his body slipping between her fists. She could feel his breath on her skin, and it actually felt nice. It didn't smell like he lived drinking blood that was for certain. Actually, she found that Miroku smelled pretty good. He smelled a bit like incense.

Miroku leaned down, his forehead touching hers, and the hiss she made at his proximity and his touch sounded like an ocean crashing into his ear. For certain, he was flirting with danger. His nose picked up on all the different scents she had encountered that day as he nudged his way to her neck before he lifted his head slightly to touch her ear with his soft lips, all in an attempt to get closer to her mind. He wanted to know what bothered her, what she feared. His powers had grown since the day he had met the last Slayer. She couldn't possibly know that he was repeating one single thought into her mind, feeding it into her body over and over again. 'Stay.'

"Ah," he sighed as he managed to worm his way into her mind, picking up on more of her thoughts. He didn't bother to dig around too much, knowing that at any moment she might break away from his spell. That was why he had thrown away the stake: if she broke the spell, she wouldn't have a weapon on her. Miroku dove right to the portion of her mind that reeked of fear and loathing.

Sango felt Miroku's long lashes brush her skin as his hand suddenly slid down to her derriere and he squeezed a cheek. Her anger blew up and she tried to whip her head around and scream that he was a pervert, but she couldn't move.

He grinned, and mentally sighed, telling Inuyasha thank you. He had been right, saying that she had a great ass. She did. Miroku was lost in the feeling, trying to memorize the curve under his palm, when Sango's mind thrummed, and he knew how to hurt her the most. Touching her, taking advantage of her, it bothered her more than anything, but it didn't scare her. More than anything, Miroku wanted to break the Slayer. The thought he felt was only one word.

Kohaku.

The best part was, it wasn't just a brother. No, she wasn't just thinking about a family member, she was thinking about a _twin_. Twins had their own special bond. He could hurt the twin, and hurt Sango through him. The Slayer was impermeable, but her twin wasn't.

Miroku slid away from Sango, and waved to her. "See you soon, Sango," he grinned, before he hurried down the alleyway, away from Sango before he released the spell.

A minute or two after he disappeared, Sango felt the spell release. She could move again. Her body shook with rage, and she punched the dumpster so hard she dented the metal body. "That bastard! That fucking, telepathic bastard!"

Sango knew that it was going to take her a long time to fall asleep. She'd have nightmares about Miroku for a long time.


	6. The Children of Sesshomaru

**The Blooded**

AN: Yay another update! I can't believe how early the sun is setting now… it means that I have actually been on from dawn to dusk. Which is sad. And why before the sun sinks down al the way I will go and wish happy birthday to my sister. Hopefully, she is home. --

Siren of Erised: I enjoy being inspiring. And man… if you think it was good between Mirok and Inuyasha, wait till Sesshy comes in here! ::grins:: and thank you for the extra drool bucket. But if you have _that_ much of an overactive imagination, I think you'll need it for this chapter.

Starzki: I am trying to write horror/drama; it's good to know that someone is getting creeped out!

Demon Exterminator: The InuKag is a bitch to write in the fic, but Sango and Miroku? Now that's just _fun_!

Ninalee-chan: Miroku is very sensuous. He's had almost eight hundred years to practice. There's no way Sango can resist that, right? (Eh. We'll see. She is the Slayer!) And Miroku can read unprotected thoughts. Sango has some ability to shield her thoughts from telepathic vampires, but repetitive thoughts (like him falling off the roof) are so strong that they are more easily read. But essentially, yes, Miroku _can_ read minds, but not those of Sango's, or other people who have shielded their thoughts (like Inuyasha).

Furi iki: I have to put your review here, just to share it:

Damn that Miroku! He's too fucking sexy! He wouldn't have had to put me under a spell to grab my ass.

Truer words were never spoken!

**Chapter Six: The Children of Sesshomaru**

September 20, Wednesday, 11:05

The day had decided to be colder and rainier than the beautiful late summer weather they had had yesterday. Sango found her two new friends waiting for her at her locker at lunchtime. Kouga and Kagome had decided to wait there for her because they wouldn't be eating outside. They wouldn't be eating outside again until the warm spring weather returned. Nobody, except for one person in the entire school, knew where Kagome and Kouga went to eat when the cold weather came.

"The library?" Sango repeated. Kagome motioned for her to lower her voice in the empty hallway. "How in the world did you two get permission to _eat_ in the library?"

"Easy. The librarian loves me," Kagome explained with a smile. "She knows that I get picked on, so she lets me stay there during the winter. She likes me. We just have to be quiet." Kagome giggled and pointed to Kouga with her thumb. "She just puts up with him because he's my friend."

Sango felt herself smile, and for the first time in a long time, she didn't mind that she was making friends. Sango admired Kagome, who was impossible to love because of her sweet demeanor, and Kouga was turning out to be quite the comedian. He was actually quite witty, and made the class uproar until even the teacher caught the tear-jerking laughter. "Will she like me?"

"She will because you're my friend… until she gets to know you. Then she'll like you for being yourself. Kana enjoys the quiet, and people who respect books. Especially old books. Really, _old_ books."

There was something in Kagome's eyes when she spoke of old books that made Sango feel suspicious. After a moment, Sango clued into what it was, and her own eyes widened before she went into Slayer-mode. "Kana is a demon?" Kagome nodded, and the Slayer-mode became even more intense. "What type of demon is she? How could you allow a demon into your school?"

Kagome sighed. She had seen this argument coming a mile away, but she had hoped that Sango had only a problem with vampires and might be kinder to demons. Apparently her hopes had been misplaced. "Don't worry, Sango. She's benign. She's quiet, and all she really wants to do is to be able to go back home and read her books. But her funds have run out, so she needed to come out for a decade or two and earn some money. Then she's planning on going back for the next two hundred years to her home, and read peacefully. There aren't many vampires around here, but because we're a quiet little spot on the ocean, there are many demons who only want to come out of their homes for a little while before they go back to seclusion. Like the vampires, only the transient demons cause problems."

Pushing open the door, Kagome's bright smile warmed the empty library. The librarian, Kana, was a small woman with white hair and pale eyes. Sango thought that she looked a little bit like a ghost. However, when she saw Kagome, Kana gave a very small smile, and stood up, so that her bust was visible over the edge of her desk, as opposed to just her eyes. "Hello, Kagome. Who's your new friend?"

"Kana, this is Sango. Sango, this is Ms. Chaopaya. Everyone just calls her Ms. C, but Kouga and I are allowed to call her Kana."

Sango bowed her head in the direction of the short librarian. She was so tall that she could see the book that Kana was reading behind her desk. The pages were yellowed with age, the print small, and she could see it was written in Aramaic. Sango could only pick out a few words. When she lifted her head, her brown eyes were filled with respect for Kana. Sango didn't know if she could trust the albino demon, but she did have respect for anybody who was so into books and reading that they were attempting to read a book in Aramaic!

Kagome led them to one of the side rooms used for quiet research. They shut the door and drew the blinds, cutting them off from any prying eyes. They secured the room by locking the doors. Kouga laughed as he sat down and began pulling out a container of dry Froot Loops. "It's not like Kuranosuke is going to find us in here anyway," he told Sango. "Kana has banned him from the library after he first insulted her, thinking she was a freshman, and then tried to use one of her personal books as firewood."

Rolling her eyes, Sango sat down at the conference desk. She had woken up late from her sleep. What precious little rest she had gotten had been interrupted by nightmares. That meant she hadn't had time for—a decent—breakfast or to make her lunch. She'd also forgotten her wallet, which meant no cafeteria food. Sango was trying to survive the whole day on a pop tart and a 341 mL can of Coke. As tired as she was, the idea of Kuranosuke being such an idiot was more than enough to make her laugh out loud. "That idiot wouldn't know what a book was for even if someone told him how to open one. Has he ever read anything in his whole life?"

"Sure," Kouga nodded with a mouth full of Froot Loops. "He's read the directions on a condom. His girlfriend just had to point out which end was the opening on the condom."

Sango snickered, and her head slid down to the desk. 'I'm sooo tired!' She yawned, and rubbed her neck, wincing a little. Sango knew the wounds she had dreamed about were long gone, but she still felt them as if she were fresh. Kagome noticed her actions, and passed Sango down a spare container of oden. Sango looked at as if it were gold. "How do you manage to go out slaying, still make it to school on time, and make lunch?"

"Easy," Kagome replied with a chipper grin. "The key is to make things in bulk. There's four more containers of oden in the fridge, so that I have my lunch for the next few days already. This week it's oden, and then when that's finished, I think that I'll make up… hm, mass stir-fry. Next week… hm, grocery stores will be trying to get rid of the picked strawberries so maybe a mass fruit salad, and…"

"Stop, stop, please, stop! You're making me hungry!" Sango mouthed a thank you, and began to pick at the oden. As hungry as she was, she had larger fish to fry than the state of her stomach. Kouga and Kagome joked, and finally Sango couldn't take it any longer. She leaned her arm on the table, the Tupperware container still barely touched. "Kagome," Sango said quietly, seriously. "How come you didn't tell me that the name of Inuyasha's pack-mate was Miroku?"

Kagome stared at her friend a second, and then shrugged, looking thoughtful. "Inuyasha likes to keep his secrets from me. It's part of his defense system, that way I will never get to know him completely. He's never told me the name of the vampires he hangs around with. I didn't even know that there was more than one until a few weeks ago, when he accidentally let it slip. He calls Miroku his brother. But, does it really matter what the name of his companion is? At least Miroku sounds like a very nice name."

The Slayer frowned. Sure, it did sound like a nice name. It was the name of the future Buddha, of course. Sango had wondered how many people he had tricked into believing he really was Buddha incarnate. But it was also a nice name for a very not nice person. Sango got up and disappeared into the library for a second. She talked with Kana, Kagome and Kouga peering out from around the corner of the conference room door. Sango reentered with a very large book.

She handed the book to Kouga, who had already wolfed down his supper. It mean that if she didn't have to read, she could eat. "Read," she commanded him.

Kouga cleared his throat, and began to read to where Sango had pointed. "During the first industrial revolution, England was struck with a disappearance of children. Many blamed the now working parents, stating that it was the fault of the women who were in the work force, and not at home. However, in reality the disappearance was because of the rise of vampires in the city, following the prey leaving the countryside to live in the ghettos of London. Many of the disappearances were the result of the arrival of the first vampire, Sesshomaru, and his children. One, in particular, was notoriously cruel." Kouga leaned the book down to look at the two females in the room. "Who's this Sesshomaru?"

"The first vampire," Sango answered, after considering a second. She looked blatantly at Kagome when she said it. Kouga already knew about vampires, so he might as well know a bit more. It might be able to help protect him. "He doesn't really like to feed on anyone over the age of fourteen. The younger the human victims, the purer and stronger the blood. They might need to drain the body of a full grown fifty year old man to be satiated, but a single newborn will be enough for a few days for them."

Even Kagome didn't know that. Her cheeks began to look a bit green from the idea.

He continued reading. "One of the kin of Sesshomaru was interested to learn more about the human body. Using the new medicinal advances of the time, Miroku performed experiments on the children they gathered to study the affects of turning children into vampires. He forced them to drink his blood and then performed live dissections on them to study how his blood affected their internal organs and circulatory systems."

Kagome began to look even more green. "And this is Inuyasha's friend? The person he calls brother?"

Sango nodded slowly. "And because Sesshomaru made Miroku and they call each other brother, it's quite easy to tell that Inuyasha is also the son of Sesshomaru. That would literally make Inuyasha and Miroku brothers, and second generation vampires." Her eyes slid from her oden to Kagome. "You said that you were afraid of Inuyasha for what he is capable of doing. But do you really know what he's capable of doing? Do you know what it means to be a second generation vampire?"

Kagome shook her head no, and Sango explained. "It means that they are faster than any vampire you've seen before. Their skin is tougher, their healing factor practically invisible, it's so quick. They'll have more than one talent, and the talents that they have will be stronger than anything." Her tone was bitter. "Even stronger than me. I encountered Miroku yesterday. He was able to render me immobile with just a single mental thought. Basically, we won't know what Inuyasha is capable of doing until he actually does it. He's invisible when he stalks, he can change his shape, has the senses of an animal, amazing healing factor. And I would assume that because he seems to have focused on animal-like qualities, he can accelerate at about twice cheetah speed in half the time, and he can probably carry about as much as an ant."

Their male companion leaned back in his chair, smiling. He flipped through the book, slightly out of boredom and because the topic of vampires made him feel so uncomfortable. "That doesn't sound so bad, carrying as much as an ant."

His oldest friend sighed. "Kouga," Kagome said patiently. "Ants can lift up ten… maybe twelve?... times their body weight."

Sango swallowed the oden she had been eating. "Which means that our buddy Inuyasha out there can pick up a bus and swing it like an aluminum bat." She took a sip of Coke and then thought of something else. Her brown hair swished in the air of the quiet room. "Oh, it also means that they're going to be a bitch to kill. Wooden stakes might not be enough for them. Their healing factor will be too quick, and they might not be weak enough to have wood act like a poison. We're looking at beheading, and then for safety's sake, burning the body." The thought made her think of how she was ever going to succeed in killing Sesshomaru. She didn't think that even beheading would work on him. His skin would be as hard as armor. "Miroku, will have to die, Kagome."

The glowing blue eyes of her friend perked up slowly as she realized that Sango had said nothing about killing Inuyasha. "Then you've made up your mind? You're not going to kill Inuyasha, or try to? Sango, I like you! I don't want to see you get hurt! Even…" She lowered her voice, and leaned closer to Sango. Sango's mind snapped when she picked up traces of vampire on her. She obviously hadn't been the only one last night that had met up with one of the undead. "Even if you do end up coming back. I like you being able to be my friend."

Her honesty and friendliness touched Sango, and so the Slayer decided to wait to talk about what had happened between her friend and Inuysaha later on. Let them move on to a different, happier topic. She smiled across the table. "So, Kouga, explain to me how you haven't died of malnutrition, yet?"

Lunch succumbed to laughter and jokes, and Sango left the library with a strong appreciation of Kana. They had remained undisturbed the entire forty minutes of lunch. Sango knew that if they had dared to eat in the cafeteria, they would have been pelted with hardened mashed potatoes and empty drinking boxes. This was much nicer. Sango even looked forward to possibly having a conversation with Kana, although she wondered if Kana minded speaking or not.

The hallways were bustling with noise: the sounds of laughter and complaining about returning to classes and the slamming on locker doors. Whispers went by as the trio walked through the hallways, though the odd person held up a hand in greeting to Kouga. Sango could understand the stares Kagome received. She did have a rather unearthly look to her, and people were scared of things that were different. She even understood when she got a few stares herself. Sango had made an impression on the school, and she didn't care at all that most people called her a bitch behind her back, others a heroine for standing up against Kuranosuke. She just didn't like it when people shook their heads at her out of pity.

"There goes that Sango girl," they would say. "I feel so sorry for her. She didn't know what she got into when she stood up against, you know, _them_. Now it's going to haunt her for the rest of her high school career. With a body like that… I'm going to hate to see what she looks like when Kuranosuke gets through with her. And look at the people she's hanging out with because of that anger of hers!"

'The bastards in the school won't even get to know Kagome before they condemn her just because she's different.' Sango's thoughts were interrupted when she saw the people part in the opposite hallway, scurrying like mice out of the way. Sango stopped walking and stood her ground, waiting for the 'in-crowd' to come to her. Kouga and Kagome also stopped. It was time for the showdown of the day. When the students noticed how the trio had stopped, the whispers increased and the hallways began to clear. The in-crowd soon became visible.

The two opposing groups stared at one another for a long time, until the bell rang and everyone else had hurried to their classes. It was like an old fashioned showdown. Sango felt a stab of pain when she saw her twin standing next to the cute girl with freckles and two ropey braids. She was able to see Kohaku's eyes and saw them reflect the same sentiment. It gave her a perverse sense of pride. Her brother may be with the wrong crowd, but at least he felt like shit for it.

For the first time, Kouga wasn't stoned out of his gourd, and he saw the direction of Sango's gaze. He was also aware enough to see the relation between the two that so far, nobody had noticed or chosen to acknowledge.

Kuranosuke swelled his chest and strode to meet the trio. He completely ignored Kouga, and flashed Sango a glare that would only make a freshman built like a stick quake. All his attention was focused on Kagome, whose blue eyes noted every movement he made. He moved in close, shoving Kouga into the lockers to get to Kagome. Sango was just as watchful of Kuranosuke. She didn't trust him, and was waiting to pounce him and beat him to a bloody pulp if he made so much as a twitch to hurt Kagome.

Instead he just leaned down, his nose almost touching hers. His eyes narrowed but Kagome still stared up at him defiantly. She didn't even twitch when he had invaded her personal space. Kuranosuke smiled. "By this time next week, you'll never want to speak against us again, you little witch."

The words were mostly harmless, but he said them with such ferocity, that the Slayer herself felt a little chill go through her body.

* * *

California, sometime in the 1960's.

_Miroku__ stood on a pile of burning rubble, watching people run around the dark streets and send rocks into the windows of shops and homes. Chaos was everywhere, the sounds of police trucks and ambulances everywhere, but none were near him. It had been decades since he had been able to see the stars without blinding streetlamps, and Miroku was relishing the walk down memory lane. That's when he saw Clara. Her hair was so fine and blonde that it was like a light to him, her grey eyes staring up at the sky with an expression of longing._

_She was remembering too._

_His eyes flashed in the darkness, the blackness expanding, trying to find some sort of power signature to find out if she were a vampire or not. Instead, he found a sense of power almost as strong as is, and something else that made him freeze in his tracks. She was fully human._

_He looked closer, and that's when he saw the concentrated power, the will and inner strength of the girl stretched back eons. Miroku had no way to explain this phenomenon. All he knew was that in that one moment when he saw how strong her aura was, he wanted her. He wanted her to warm his bed, he wanted to make her cry, he wanted to make that strength crumble. It was more intense than lust, more driving than the kill. Miroku began to make his way forward._

_"Now, what is a beautiful girl like you," he crooned, "doing out alone in a nasty neighborhood such as this on such a dark night?"_

_"Looking at the stars," she answered, never taking her eyes off of the night sky. "Don't the stars look beautiful? I haven't seen them like this in a long time… I wish I had the eyes of an owl. I bet that on a night like this, with eyes like that, I could see all the way to the horse head nebula. I could see the rings of Saturn with the naked eye, with no lights on like this. I wish we could just flick off a switch now and then and see the stars whenever we want without the lights to bother us. Sometimes I wonder if people who live in __California__ their whole lives have ever even seen the stars."_

_Clara looked back at him, registering his face even in the dim light. She looked back up at the sky._

_"It's a waste of time, to spend the nights inside and never know of the lands human beings might one day visit," Miroku agreed. "I myself, I would love to see Jupiter one day, up close and personal. Yes, Jupiter and all his moons. How many people can say that they've seen the largest planet on the other side of the asteroid belt without the aid of a lens?"_

_"I would be happy getting to walk on the moon like Neil Armstrong," the girl giggled. Miroku put an arm on her shoulder, and she moved away. He could sense her body tense. "Don't do that. I'm out here because I can defend myself. We were having such a nice conversation, do you have to ruin it by trying to get me to go with you so you can drink my blood?"_

_His muscles flinched. She knew? She knew he was a vampire? 'Wait. Better question. She knows vampires exist?'_

_That's when he realized what the power was that he had felt for so long; what the power was that had existed for so long. She was the Slayer! Of course she knew that vampires existed, she had been finding them for ages! Or, rather, a chain of different women had been doing it for ages. Miroku made a split decision, knowing that this was his one and only chance to ever take down a Slayer. Oh yes, Sesshomaru would be proud, and Inuyasha would be envious, but it would be worth it! How many vampires had ever been able to taste Slayer blood?_

_He scooped up a rock from the ground, and slammed it into her head with all his vampiric strength. The sound it made connecting with the blonde girl's head was disgusting. She crumpled to the grounds, tiny specks of her rich blood still hanging in the air._

_Miroku leaned over her, making sure that she was still alive. He could still feel her pulse and her breath on his skin. It made him smile. He'd actually managed to knock out the Slayer. Okay, sure, his whole arm hurt from the force that he'd used to swing the rock, but the point was that he had captured a Slayer._

_Picking her up, he threw her over his shoulder. In the darkness of __California__, nobody knew anything about the incident. The age of Aquarius still sat in the dark waiting for the light to return, while their one chance at remaining alive was slung over the form of a vampire older than the state of __California__ itself._

_He made it all the way back to his haven without getting stopped or spotted. Then again, he'd run so fast and along the rooftops, so as to limit the number of people who would see him. He wanted to play with his toy, and that meant that he had to ensure she wouldn't get away before she regained consciousness._

_After entering his room, he threw her on the bed and began looking for something to use to tie her down. Unable to find anything strong enough to keep a Slayer locked to the bed, he entered Inuyasha's rooms. Inuyasha always did play rougher with his toys. That was another reason why they made such a great couple. Miroku got off the mental games, Inuyasha on the physical. It meant that they never fought over their toys, because they could satiate both desires with only one being. He chuckled to himself as he found the stacks of handcuffs in the trunk under Inuyasha's bed. 'Ah, if these walls could talk.'_

_The Slayer was still asleep when he chained her to the bed. He doubted that even the Slayer, though rumors about her said she possessed enough strength to rip a vampire's head from their body with a swipe of the nail on her pinky, could rip four handcuffs off of the posts of a solid walnut bed. Miroku sat cross-legged on the end of his poster bed, playing with the sheer curtains surrounding it, and watching her. She looked nice when she slept. She didn't look like she could take down demons barehanded laying on his mattress, completely vulnerable, the blood running down one side of her forehead, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm._

_Becoming disturbed by watching her sleep, he crawled off the bed and poured himself a glass of rum. While no alcohol could make him become intoxicated, there was something about alcohol that acted like blood, warming the vampire corpse until it could pass for human. Miroku treasured that warmth. This time he took a seat far away from the Slayer, his glass and the bottle of rum still in his hands. And this time, he thought only of how to kill her. _

_It was the man in him that was at fault, the man he had been and who still tried to live now and then. He felt a small amount of respect for the girl laying on his bed. It wasn't who she was that made him respect her, but what she was capable of doing and what she did do that made part of him want to let her go. He'd made her bleed, proved that she was only human, deep down. What else did he need to do besides that?_

_She stirred, starting to awaken, and the preciousness of the sounds made that same immortal, human part of Miroku smile inwardly. She sounded like a cat as she yawned and tried to get up. Too bad she could only push herself up slightly. Miroku would have loved to have seen her stretch. He got up from the chair, moving around so that he could see the expression on her face when she woke up. His maneuver was well worth it to see her become frightened, and then spot him and glare at him loathingly. She had trusted a vampire for half a second to talk about stars, and now she was going to get to die._

_He had been planning on taunting her, but he changed his mind after seeing the expression of pain on her face when she realized her moment of recollection had allowed her to be captured. Instead, he set down the rum and sat beside her on the bed. Reaching out, he meant to wipe the blood from her face. She lunged forward, the cuffs straining with the effort of keeping her chained down. Her teeth snapped centimeters away from his skin. _

_Angered that his kind attention had been so rudely reacted to, he acted without thinking. His hand slapped across her face with such force her cheek struck her arm. She was motionless, shocked that the vampire had struck a woman chained down in such a day in age. Her body went from still to frozen solid when he reached out again to the side of her face nearest him, and began to wipe away the slick blood with gentle wipes of his fingers. She turned in time to see him lick her blood from his skin, a thoughtful smile on his face._

_She said nothing still, knowing that to tell him to go to hell, or that she wanted a clean death was futile. The Slayer had learned the hard way that most of the time that only makes the death longer and more violent. No vampire would actually be kind enough to give her a quick, clean death._

_Miroku__ was still taken aback by the amount of hatred in her eyes, until he tasted her blood. It was like no human blood he had ever had before. It was so full of life and power, as if a hundred humans had been poured into the one body. The closest he could come to comparing it to something he knew was to say it was like the blood of his sire; pure, uncorrupted life in liquid red form._

_And that had only been a taste._

_He leaned down, and she gave no movement this time to warn him away. She wasn't even fighting against the cuffs. His warm tongue lapped up the blood still trickling from the wound in her head. Miroku moaned sensuously from the taste of it. It was no wonder why so many vampires dared to fight the Slayer for her blood. It was the blood that kept Miroku's perversion from changing his mind again. He had wanted to toy with her, but he couldn't now that he had tasted that blood. Miroku didn't want anything to change the consistency of that blood._

_He crawled over her, and she shifted only slightly, knowing it was of no use to try and fight him. She wasn't strong enough to break the cuffs, she wasn't able to kill him. She wished she could. Miroku could feel the strength of that wish pounding through him. Had she been tied only a little bit closer to the bottom of the bed, she would be able to kick out the bottom pillars of the poster bed, and slip her cuffs out from the broken wood, a stake made from another quick kick of the bed._

_Grasping her chin, he held her face to the side, and his mouth covered the cheek he had struck. Miroku felt her flinch, waiting for the pain, the torture, and he heard her let out a gasp when his lips kissed the bruise forming on her face. He didn't know why he was being so gentle with her, he just knew that he didn't want to hurt her. Oh, being soft and gentle was a way of playing too, of making her wonder why and wonder every second when the pain she knew he could create would enter into her world. It was a whole new way of killing somebody with kindness. But he was serious about his actions. All he knew was that he didn't want to hurt her._

_His lips slowly began to move down to her throat, and he could feel her fear shiver into him like a cold wind. He ignored it, knowing that she didn't want her blood to be drunk, that she was still waiting for blinding pain. His lips hovered over the spot on her graceful neck where her blood beat the strongest, taking a moment to mark down her scent, the feeling of her skin, and the warmth from her body. He licked the spot, cleaning it, tasting it, before his lips surrounded her skin. Miroku's perverse sense of pleasure was unable to keep from running the tip of his fangs against her skin, feeling it move under his touch and taunt him. He groaned from the pleasure of it all. _

_'Hell, this is better than sex!'_

_The girl under him snorted, and said one of only two words that she would tell him that night, after he had captured her. "Pervert."_

_It sounded like such an accusation that Miroku lifted his head to see her face, wondering if she were trying to be humorous. She had said it like a bad thing, and judging from the expression on her face, it was meant that way. Miroku chuckled lightly, surprising her even further. "No argument there."_

_His lips drew back down to her neck, and he slowly bit down on her neck, trying to make it less painless for her and enjoy it more himself. His fangs slid into the skin, and then into her veins, where they were met with the pulsing blood that was richer than the finest wine. They retreated again, his lips forming a tight seal as the heart pushed the blood out of her body and into his awaiting mouth. Unable to wait, he began to suck at the wound lightly, swallowing the blood that gushed from the bite mark in steady waves. He was barely able to taste it as it ran down his throat, making his body feel aflame._

_It was so pleasurable, his body rubbing against hers as her blood warmed his dead being and prolonged his life for one more day, that at first he didn't notice it. Something was slipping past every mental barrier he had ever made as if they were non-existent. They wound around his mind, and into the deepest parts of his body. The pounding of this unknown power entering into him beat slowly, and when Miroku did notice it, he ignored it. It was probably just his imagination. It was probably something to do with the rum that had made his lips warm for the Slayer and the combination of her blood. Maybe her blood was even a hallucinogen!_

_That was when Miroku waited for his favorite part of the ritual. He excelled in powers of the mind, and waited patiently for her mind to open up to him. He wanted to know everything. He wanted to know her name, whom she had killed, whom she loved; he wanted her memories and dreams, fantasies and nightmares, he wanted to know everything about her._

_Yet nothing happened. Nothing. Miroku's powers wound around her mind like a snake, waiting for the shields around her mind to weaken so that he could read her like a book. The shields didn't weaken. His mental powers pounded against them, tried finding a tiny hole through which he could enter, but there was nothing._

_Her heart began to slow, the blood not quite so warm or fast, but just as strong. She was dying. He knew he couldn't continue to feed for very long, before the heart stopped pumping and he had no way to drain her body of the last few drops of blood. That's when he realized the sensation he thought he had been imagining was, in fact, real, and with each slow heartbeat of the dying Slayer, it was growing stronger._

_His lips rose from her neck, the blood spilling from her neck unto his white pillows. He couldn't help it, and he gasped for his breath as he felt the power copy every single one of his memories, making him live them all over again. He felt his arms shake as the connection leeched power from his body, taking his physical strength and his speed, taking his powers of telepathy and reading auras, copying them. Miroku was no idiot. He knew what was going on._

_The Slayer was copying his memories and powers, stealing his strength and adding it to her own._

_Her heart beat slowed further, and as he stared at her, she was still perfectly calm. She looked like a statue lying on his bed like that, staring up at him with a look which clearly said, 'I will be revenged'. And then she said the only other word she would ever say to him, adding on to the expression of certain revenge. The way the word fell from her lips was a warning, and the fact that she knew it made Miroku more afraid than he ever had been before in his lifetime._

_"Miroku…"_

_-_

Miroku awoke in a cold sweat, just as Inuyasha had the night before. That whole episode had disturbed him so much, that he never thought about it. It had been the greatest kill, the greatest blood he had ever had, but he never thought about it. How had she done that? Why had she done that?

Like the night before, Inuyasha had been able to sense the distress of his pack-mate, and he had arrived in Miroku's rooms to check on him. No, Inuyasha had been able to _feel_ the distress of his pack-mate. It hung in the air like a physical object, it was so strong. He stood in the doorway of Miroku's rooms, staring at his friend as he tried to get out of the same bed in which he had killed the Slayer. There was a tiny smirk on Inuyasha's face, to cover up the concern. "Bad dream?"

"Bad memory," he sighed. He groaned as he got out of bed and threw on a bathrobe to cover up his naked body. Miroku rubbed his tired eyes and immediately grabbed the nearest bottle of alcohol. He swore heavily when he saw that it was almost empty.

"What happened to you last night?" Inuyasha asked, still standing in the doorway. "You came in, drank a whole bottle of vodka fuckin' straight up and then went and crashed. You've slept since four last night and then I wake up and find that you're having nightmares. What's the matter?" When Miroku didn't answer, he laughed cruelly, the sound so short it almost could have sounded more like a bark. He decided to goad it out of him. "Did you fall in love or something, Miroku?"

He grimaced, and ignored the joke. "Anything but. You know that friend of Kagome's, the one that threw you into the tree?" His pack-mate nodded. Miroku managed to smile a little, eager to see Inuyasha's expression. With his gold eyes, fangs, and puppy ears, it should prove interesting. "She's the fuckin' Slayer."

His ears went straight up, his widening to the point that they looked like gold coins in his white face. "Slayer? What are you saying? You're saying the fucking Slayer is here? Why? What the hell would the Slayer be doing here? Wait… how the fucking hell do you know Sango's the Slayer?"

Tapping his temple, he shrugged, and pressed past Inuyasha to head for the pile of books at the large desk in the common area. He opened the first one, and began to look for anything regarding the jade box on the desk beside it. "I just know, Inuyasha. I've met a Slayer once before. I can recognize that aura anywhere."

"What are you saying? What do you mean 'that aura'? Are you trying to tell me that the Slayer's immortal or some shit like that? Everybody knows that the Slayer can be killed! Sesshomaru's killed how many of them? Besides, if you've met her before, how come you're still alive? Even Sesshomaru admits that the Slayer was a tough kill for him these past few centuries!"

"Easy. I clubbed her from behind. And I'm not saying that she's immortal. I killed one myself, Inuyasha, in the sixties. I drained her dry. She can die. It's just that Slayer auras seem to have a certain _look_, a certain _feel_ to them. It's the same way humans have a certain look of aura, and vampires have a different one. The Slayer's is somewhere in between the two."

"So what should we do then?" Inuyasha asked calmly, flopping down in the couch and holding his head. "Relocate our business? I don't want to do that. I like it here. Besides, technically, we can't leave until I kill Kagome. Besides… if you and Sesshomaru can kill the Slayer, I want to try too. I can take her down. I can. I snuck up on her when she was with Kagome the first day I met her." He grinned, his fangs looking fiercer. "Besides, she's a friend of Kagome's. I bet that it'll hurt a lot to see the Slayer get killed, especially if she were forced to watch."

The concept intrigued Miroku, and he lifted his eyes from the book in front of him. "I like that idea, Inuyasha. Sesshomaru was right when he made you my brother. But we can plan that later. She doesn't know where we are, and Kagome will fight to keep you from getting killed by her. Trust me about that. But first, I want to read these books so you can take them back to Kagome tomorrow night, and get me some more books. There's _something_ about this box, I just know there is…"

Inuyasha stood up and began rummaging around in his room. "I'm going out hunting then. Don't worry, I'll keep a low profile. Maybe I'll hit the motels or something. Want me to bring you back something?"

"No, it'll only distract me from my work. Just bring me back something from the hospital, or an animal and that will keep me satiated."

"Blood packs and animals? That's fuckin' disgusting, Miroku. Whatever, though. I don't know how you like books so much, Miroku."

Miroku shrugged, barely listening. "It's the only thing better than a mental mind fuck."

* * *

AN: Kanna is based on the idea of a Kiasyd, a type of vampire in VtM, and I think I spelled it right. ::winces:: 


	7. Recent Developments

**The Blooded**

AN: I kind of got a bad mark on an essay. I hate University sometimes. So… I'm updating, because it makes me feel better. Bah. Stupid marks.

At least 68 is a very round and happy looking mark. - ::sweatdrops::

AN:

Ninalee-chan: Erotic? I don't know what you mean. ::pause:: No, really, I don't see it that much. Now Kagome and Inuyasha sharing blood, that's pretty damn erotic when you get caught up in the moment! Besides, Miroku is a vampire! Doesn't that mean that he's supposed to be all sexual and stuff? But really… it wasn't mean to be that way.

Aamalie: I think it's the fangs. Fangs are sexy. And the idea that you are becoming completely vulnerable when you… never mind. This topic will later be discussed in the chapters themselves. Er… as soon as I figure out when and a way for Sango and Miroku to get together.

Purplepeopleeater: Damn straight that Sango and Sesshy will be fighting it out! …Eventually. And she does indeed get stronger with each generation; hence why she could throw Inuyasha into a wall without breaking a sweat. If you have any ideas for Miroku and Sango getting together… let me know, because I kind of have writer's block with that. (Writer's block for fluff? ME? I know, it's almost unheard of, but it happens.)

Lily: It's the vampire that does it. Man, I LOVE vampires…

Furi Iki: I don't know… the lack of Inu/Kag and MiroSan in some of these chapters kind of bores me… but it was a necessary evil!

Starzki: I'll let you in on a little secret: Miroku isn't as bad as he pretends. I just need how to figure out how to show that.

Siren of Erised: Gomen on the spelling. ::winces:: I will eventually fix it… like after I am done going through 30 more pages of lecture notes for medieval England. Man, I want to bloody ace that exam! (Note to self: STUDY.) I don't think I've contemplated Sesshy in black leather enough. Please, tell me more… -

Thank you for all the reviews! I hope that this will brighten up your day as much as updating makes mine feel better!

**Chapter Seven**

**Recent Developments**

September 21, Tuesday, 4 pm

That day at school, thankfully, nothing happened to Kagome. Nonetheless, Kouga and Sango jumped at each shadow, each creak behind them, or cough from another direction as they worried and fretted over their friend. They were going to protect Kagome with everything they could to keep Kuranosuke from hurting her, even if it drove them insane. They knew that they couldn't protect her every minute of every day, but they were damn well going to try.

It also happened to pass that the nightmare of any high school student came true: major test, with only one day's warning. The trio was hanging around in front of the empty school by Kouga's bike, trying to decide what to do for studying for the major English test. It was the first day that Sango didn't get a detention for fighting. She really wanted to go out celebrating and treat everyone with ice cream or something, but the announcement of a surprise test had ruined that idea. 'Besides,' Sango thought, looking at Kagome huddled in two large fall sweaters, 'giving Kagome ice cream right now might make her squeeze into a third sweater.'

Kagome felt Sango staring at her, and she smiled over the edge of her scarf. "I was originally from Japan. Maybe it's something in my genes or something, but I really do hate the cold."

"What in the world do you do when it snows?" Sango inquired.

Kouga answered with a snort. "She squirms into four pairs of pants. It means that she has to get up half an hour earlier just to get dressed." His teasing tone of voice was lightened by his fond smile as he looked down at Kagome. "I wouldn't have her any other way though."

He threw his arms around Kagome in a surprise attack, making her laugh, and he rested his pointed chin on her head. Sango thought they looked disgustingly cute. "Did I ever tell you that she's the one who gave the name Kouga? She couldn't pronounce my last name when she met me, just 'kouga', so that's what I started getting everyone to call me."

Sango let out her breath and rolled her eyes, amused by the short tale. "Whatever. If we wanted to, we could go to my house and study. My Mom's not home, and lately my brother has been disappearing after school, so the house is pretty empty. It would be perfect, if, say, two people wanted to come over and study English grammar with me."

The male in the group knew exactly what Sango was trying to do (keep Kagome away from her house to avoid another computer almost electrifying Kagome!) but the other female in the group merely perked up at the word 'brother'. "Sango!" she exclaimed. "You never told me you had a brother!"

"A twin," Kouga answered. "One of the people Kuranosuke hangs around with. Am I right?" The male grinned, knowing he was right, and was pleased at Sango's surprised face. She nodded, and Kouga continued. "She never thought of telling us because it should be obvious. They look alike, after all, and they have the same last name and stuff, so I don't see why other people don't figure it out and mention it."

"Even though he hangs around with that bastard Kuranosuke, he's really a very nice guy. You'll have to forgive him for hanging around with whom he does. This is the first time he hasn't been coming home getting beaten and stuff for being a Trekker. I just hope that they don't end up corrupting him or anything. I like my little brother the way he was, but I can understand why he thinks he needs to hide now."

Kagome understood all too well. She patted Sango's shoulder, and smiled brightly. It was still somewhat sad, the similarities between Kohaku and Souta all too noticeable in her mind. "If he's your twin brother, there's no doubt in my mind that he's just as sweet and courageous as his big sister. People like that can never be bad, even if they hang around with Kuranosuke."

"Yea! This means we get to go to Sango's house! Sango, do you have any sugar there?"

Sango grinned wildly. "I may or may not have a secret candy stash in my bedroom. But you're going to have to beat me there!" She bolted, suddenly putting ten meters between herself and Kouga's bike before they understood she meant to race.

Kouga handed Kagome his knapsack that normally sat on the metal seat behind him. "Get on," he told her. She did so, her knapsack over one shoulder and his over another, and she hung on to Kouga with all her might as he took off after Sango.

Both of Kagome's friends knew, of course, that she could defend herself more than adequately enough. After all, she fought vampires for Pete's sake. The question was: could she defend herself against Kuranosuke? Her friends would rather not find out. They already knew she wouldn't use magic on him, and the man was so belligerent that he'd fly into a fury at the slightest thing. They feared that her fighting back would make him mad, in the same way that her not fighting back would make him mad. Whatever happened in the fight, whenever it ran through their minds, Kagome always came out the worse for wear. They didn't want to see that happen.

Worse yet, both of her friends knew about Inuyasha, and his need to kill her. They worried that if Kuranosuke did get to her, that Inuyasha might find out about and take advantage of her broken bones and sightless black eyes. Neither Kouga nor Sango knew that the other friend knew; both thought they were the only ones aware of the fate between the vampire and the witch.

Unable to figure out who won their race, they declared it a tie and Sango was more than happy to agree to share her secret stash of candy. Entering the house, the first thing Kagome did was see the cat lounging on the kitchen chair, and she pounced it. "Kitty!" She picked up the pale, stripped cat, and the cat didn't seem to mind at all, as she immediately started to purr. "Aw! Sango, you never told me that you had a cat!"

"That's because the cat and I are in a fight. She keeps stealing my pillows." Sango tossed her bag to the vacated seat, growling something about cat hair. Her prickly attitude was easily seen through by Kagome and Kouga, though they had known her for only a handful of days. "The pillow-stealer's name is Kirara. Would anyone like a drink? We have… water, milk, orange juice…"

"Is the orange juice Sunny D?" Kouga interrupted, looking into the fridge Sango had opened by peering over her head. "And do you have purple stuff in there, because if you do, we'll have to confiscate your fridge. We can't allow anyone to know that fridges like the ones in the Sunny D commercials actually exist or it will throw of the whole idea that the products in that commercial are placed that way purely to make the Sunny D seem more appealing."

"No, we don't have purple stuff. But we do have Coke. I always…" She opened up the bottom crisper drawer and found it empty. She tried the other one. It too, was empty. Sango sighed. "Okay, it appears I'm all out of Coke. Kouga, what's your poison?"

"I'll have the orange stuff. I'm pretty sure it's loaded with the sugar I need to stay awake and study. Kagome?"

"Just water please," she sweetly replied, still playing with the cat. Now she was rubbing her ears, and Sango wondered if she was imagining that the ears of her pillow-stealing cat belonged to a bloodsucking leech of a humanoid.

Sango gave them a quick tour of the house, that ended with her room, where she said they could study in peace. She smacked Kouga for looking around at her bedroom with a meticulous eye, studying everything. Sango didn't like the idea of having someone looking as if they were trying to memorize everything in her bedroom.

He gestured around the room, and gave a sheepish expression. "I'm sorry, Sango," he said, starting to play with his long hair as he sat down on the cushy floor. "It's just that the room doesn't really seem like it belongs to you. It seems like it belongs to a…"

"Girl?" Sango wondered, sounding a little amused.

"…" He was silent a long time, long enough for Kagome to put down the cat on the bed and pull up a chair behind Kouga, starting to braid his hair for him. Finally, he admitted, "I was actually thinking of someone with a sexuality problem myself."

Sango smacked him hard, but she had to admit, he was kind of right. Thanks to the outward appearance she had built for herself of being the strong, tough chic, the room really didn't seem to belong to her when one looked at the cotton candy pink comforter on the bed, or the white furniture painted with curling ribbons and flowers. The shelves of her bookcases were stacked with books, and seashells were strewn about in front of them. Everything was meticulously organized, from the way the plants curled under the windows, to the little knick knacks placed here and there that seemed to fill out the desk, nightstands, or shelves. It could have been the stereotypical room of a girl who loved ballet or gardening, rather than a girl who killed monsters for a living.

Then there were the items that looked as though they had been brought out of a boot camp or war zone, which, Sango fondly remembered, some of them had been. There was a blue metal chest at the end of her bed which held all her weapons. Some decorative weapons hung from the walls, between posters of movies, cats, and unicorns. The movies, of course, were all from the action genre, where Keanu Reeves in the Matrix could sit peacefully beside Jet Li. Another metal chest under her desk held all her old books about vampires. Her CD collection, which Kouga read as Kagome played with his hair, held everything from Tool to softer female singers like Sarah McLaughlin.

"Are you trying to tell me that you think I'm a female who's trying to be a male or something, Kouga?" she asked as she searched under her bed for the candy box.

"Of course not," he said in a contended voice. Sango wondered if he heard the question, he looked so pleased with himself now that Kagome had her fingers in his long hair. "If I did, you would hurt me. I don't like being hurt."

Her answer was cut off when she heard laughter in the hallway. Her sensitive hearing could hear it all. "This is my sister's room. My room's just down the hallway."

"Really?" Sango couldn't recognize the voice, but she bet that she knew who it belonged to. The voice would be perfectly suited to a girl who looked as if she were eight instead of fourteen, who had her hair in two ropy braids, and freckles across her pink cheeks, and who happened to have a dick of an older brother. "May I see it, Kohaku? I really want to see what your sister's room looks like! Just a little peek?"

She heard her brother laugh, and tiny vibrations. Was Kuranosuke's sister actually jumping up and down in excitement? The girl in the hallway continued. "I mean, your sister's so cool, I bet that she has an awesome room!"

'Ah… did I just get called 'cool'?' She blinked, and found the box, drawing it our from under her bed. 'And did I just get called cool by Kuranosuke's sister?'

"Sure! Why not?" She mentally flung insults at her brother as the door opened. Sango's guess was correct, it was Rin with Kohaku, but the first thing she noticed was the Coke cans they held. She bolted from her spot on the floor and flung herself at her brother, wrenching the Coke from his hands. "You bitch! You stole my Coke!" In one fluid move, she opened it and drained half the can before she handed it back to her brother, satisfied now that she had gotten her caffeine fix.

Rather than stare at this unusual display, Kagome and Kouga were too busy staring at Rin, who stared back at them. Kouga was waiting for her to start swearing at Kagome. Kagome was waiting for Rin to look at her unusually bright eyes and either curse her or back off before she could make the witch angry and be turned into a toad. Rin, however, was simply staring back and being quiet, ignoring Sango and Kohaku as they began to play fight for the box of candy Kohaku had spotted open on the ground.

Rin broke the silence when she suddenly smiled shyly, and walked into the room. She passed the can of Coke to Kouga. "Here. I know how much you like your sugar, Kouga, so you're welcome to have my can of Coca-Cola. It's a little warm though." She slowly turned to Kagome, and even the twins stopped fighting to see what would happen. "Ka… Kagome, I'm very pleased to meet you," she said slowly, and she suddenly picked up speed, everything tumbling from her heart.

"I want to apologize on behalf of my whole family for the way they treat you and your mother. It's disgraceful, and I have no excuse for their behavior except that they are all stupid idiots, and even that is no reason to treat you as if you're something subhuman simply because you're different."

Kagome was shocked, but her face slowly melted into a kind and understanding smile. Rin clapped her hands in a very cute manner, making even Kouga's distrust melt away; they knew that the smile had been a sign of forgiveness. Then she did something that won them all over for good. She flung her thin arms around Kagome, and hugged her. Taken by surprise, it was a moment before Kagome hugged the smaller girl in return, but when she did so, she did so fiercely.

Kohaku threw the candy he'd been trying to steal back into the box. "Rin and I were going to study for the English test. Why don't the five of us all study together?"

Rin jumped up from Kagome, still excited beyond understanding. "Yeah! A study group! Oh, I want to stay too, but only if I can help Kagome braid Kouga's hair!"

Everyone, especially Kouga, was quiet. Nobody knew if Kouga was aware that braiding was what Kagome had been doing to his hair. Nothing but Kirara's tail moved in the room, until Kouga shrugged. "Hey, I get to have two beautiful chicks braid my hair for me. Who would bother complaining about that?"

The room settled down again, as soon as Kagome, Rin, and Sango had smacked Kouga for calling women chicks, and the studying began. Glad to have her brother back to being himself and pleased at the girl he had obviously developed a crush on, there was only one person in the room happier than Sango, and that was Kagome.

-

Kagome entered the house, and before she called out for her mother, she heard something she hadn't heard in a long time. Her mother was talking to someone else in Japanese. Kagome glanced at her watch, quietly shutting the door. She couldn't possibly be talking to Kagome's grandfather, given what time it was in Japan, and because of her daughter's reputation… who was her mother talking to?

"_Koko__ ni sunde imasu ka?_" (1)Kagome heard her mother ask.

"_Hai__. Watashi wa gakusei desu._" (2)

The voice froze Kagome in her tracks, stopping her at the door to the living room. She didn't need to see the top of the long black hair sitting over the edge of the living room chair or the stacks of books on the table to know who the speaker was. Inuyasha. She had never heard him speak Japanese before. It had only ever been English, impeccably spoken. How come he had a name like Inuyasha and she had never asked? When she had seen him in his human form, she hadn't even clued into where he must have been from when he became a member of the living dead. He had always just been… Inuyasha. For some reason, vampires in America were easier accept than vampires in Japan.

Her mother looked up, and saw Kagome. She was already talking to Inuyasha, wanting to surprise him, although she doubted her voice coming from behind him would actually scare the vampire. No doubt he'd already known she was inside from the moment her toe had touched the hardwood floors. "_Nani__ o benkyo shite imasu ka_?" (3)

Inuyasha thought a moment, and then smiled at her. "_Kagaku o benkyo shiteimasu. Chi o benkyo shiteimasu._" (4)

"_Kusoyaro_." (5)Her mother shouted her name, amazed that her daughter was being so rude to their guest. Kagome looked at her mother. "_Tadaima_, Mother. (6) Can I ask who our guest is? I truly doubt that our blood specialist here introduced himself as what the rest of us call him."

Inuyasha smiled, and answered for her. "No, I didn't. I introduced myself by what other people call me: Ranma." She knew by his smile that he still wasn't giving her his real name. That was merely the name that he used instead of Inuyasha when he was talking to human people, and he would probably change it in a few years. He stood up, his clothes as impeccable as always, but she wondered why he was wearing a school uniform. His eyes followed Kagome as she went to stand behind her mother's chair.

"Kagome, I was wondering if I might be able to borrow a few more books. Your mother had already said it was okay, but I wondered if you might be kind enough to get them with me?"

_I had to lie to get your mother to invite me into her house_, she heard in her mind. The sound of his thoughts directly in her mind made her knees start to feel weak. She'd never felt something so intimate before. It wasn't physical in the slightest, but it was so intimate, she almost wanted him to stop. She wanted him to stop at the same time she wanted him to say more. She could drown herself in his words. It had slipped through all her barriers, the feeling of his words and the hint of his deep voice wrapping around her mind soothingly. And there was nothing between her mind and his.

_The uniform?_ She hadn't voiced the question of his clothes out loud, he had been able to read it from her mind. Her nails dug into the chair to keep herself standing, her eyes trying to freeze him with their gaze. _I know you don't have any friends at your school. I told her I was your friend from the Catholic high school, doing research for my religion paper on Wicca. She was more than eager to help me, and of course, to meet one of your close, personal friends._

'Get out!' she thought, unable to stand it any longer. She threw up more shields, threw up more power to try and blast him out of her mind. It worked, and her thoughts were again her own. She almost felt bad when she saw that he looked a little upset at getting evicted.

"Kagome," her mother set gently, rising as well. "Why don't you go and help Ranma find the books he needs? I think I'll go order some pizza, that is, if you want to stay for supper, Ranma, and if you like pizza."

Kagome was about to tell her mother that there was _no way_ Inuyasha was going to stay for supper, as he was a vampire, but Inuyasha answered first. "I'd love to stay, Mrs. Higurashi. Pizza sounds wonderful. I haven't had pizza in a very long time."

As her mother disappeared, Kagome rushed to face Inuyasha, standing up on her toes slightly to seem more intimidating. "What are you doing?" she hissed. "You made her ask you into our house? You put my mother in danger by coming here! What happens if she knew what you are? What happens if she finds out? You… you asshole, how dare you come into my house!"

She was so mad, so hurt by his entrance into her sanctuary, that she raised a hand to strike him with all her might, but he was able to catch her hand. His brown eyes bore down into his, looking lazy in the light of the warm living room. His touch as he held her hand was tender. "You shouldn't strike your guests," he mocked, only succeeding in making her madder.

"You aren't my guest!" Kagome spat out, shocked when her words seemed to injure Inuyasha. She ripped her hand away from his, and pushed passed him. "Come on _Ranma_. You needed some books, right? The least you can do is bring the old books with you to the library."

He brought them for her, and placed them down on the wooden desk in the library, looking around at all the books. "My pack-mate would have a field day in this room," he told her. He then turned around and sat on the desk, folding his arms across his chest defensively and demanding to know why she was so mad that he was in her house.

She whirled around on him, her dark hair like the wings of a swooping bat going in for the kill. She slammed the book she held on the desk and poked him in the chest above his hands. Her blue eyes were focused sorely on him, and Inuyasha could smell the rising electricity in the air. Lines of blue electricity flashed in her hair, jumping from pen to pen in the penholder on the desk, and making his toes go numb as the whole air became electrically charged.

"You _idiot_. Yesterday you dare threaten my mother, and then today I found you sitting in my living room talking with her and drinking green tea. Not only talking, but doing so in Japanese and actually eating _real_ food, and then you're going to stay for more! It scared the shit out of me, because I'm waiting for you to suddenly go into a rage and kill her in front of me the same way that… that _thing_ did to Souta!"

He was startled to find the tears drip from her red cheeks to his black school uniform. Inuyasha watched them fall, shimmering and splattering in perfect poetry to his devoted eyes. It made his face soften slightly. He'd seen her cry before, but this was something different. She was crying because she was scared of what _he _was going to do.

It was surprisingly painful to find someone you love thought you were always about to go into a killing rampage.

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing, but I want it to _stop_! You took away my mother's safety, and now how do I know that the next time I go out, you won't be here murdering her? How do I know that you won't follow through on your threat and kill the only family I have left? Because you would! You would take away everyone in my life, simply because it's physically possible for you to do so and because it's something that would hurt me."

When he reached out a hand, she flinched away, and looked again furious for a second before the fear and pain returned to her haunted blue eyes. His fingertips felt warm, like touching her flesh had burned them. "Don't you see, Inuyasha? The next time I go out hunting vampires at night, you will be able to enter into my house, and I worry that the next time I go out, I'll come back and find my mother's body." Her voice wavered uncontrollably at the nightmare Inuyasha had helped create through his threats and actions. "And it will look as torn and abused as Souta's!"

Her tears ceased to have any reaction on Inuyasha. Didn't she understand? Didn't she know that all his threats were empty because each moment he thought of her, he wanted to protect her more and more, to kiss her, to watch her smile? Each day, the call of his heart grew stronger than that of his nature and hunger, and whenever he was near Kagome he didn't want to touch her out of physical longing or a plot to have her blood, he simply wanted to hold her and feel life through her. She was his humanity incased in a body he would happily worship forever, and she didn't understand that.

Pissed that she wasn't aware of how strong his feelings ran or their nature, Inuyasha rose enough off the desk to stand on his own two feet and look down at Kagome. His upper lip curled up, revealing teeth still sharp despite his human form. "Good," he snapped. "Every night you go out hunting my kind, and I worry you may be lucky enough to actually find one of my friends so…"

"Losing friends? If I had any friends you would have taken them from me already! I'm talking about losing _family_!"

"So am I!" Inuyasha bellowed, receiving an anxious look at the door from Kagome. He sighed and took a deep breath before he reached out and took Kagome into his arms. This time, she went willingly, and he clung to her tightly, burying his face in the cool waves of her hair. "Kagome, I'm a young vampire, but in relation to the first vampire, I am high. I am kin to his kin. All vampires are descended from that one point, that one being, so in a way, every vampire is kin."

"So because I endanger your family each night, you returned the favor?" she bitterly asked. Kagome felt Inuyasha nod. "But Inuyasha, they kill my people. Look, Mi… your pack-mate and you, I don't have a problem with you two. You don't kill people, you don't rape them…"

Kagome had pulled away enough to see his face. He looked uncomfortable, and she wondered if the feeling of longing she picked up from him was only her imagination. "Not in this lifetime, anyway…"

"And because of this, as far as I'm concerned, you won't die in this lifetime. Not by my hand. It's the ones who do kill, the ones who rape and torture and kidnap that I want out of my city, and out of this life. People like that never should have been turned into vampires." Again, watching his face, Kagome noticed his uneasiness, though this time she could not pinpoint the cause. Kagome reached up and cupped his cheek, still amazed that she found it warm. Her blue eyes softened, and she shifted her weight, so that she was leaning up, expecting a kiss.

"Inuyasha," she said, subtly licking her lips. Still, the action was noticed by Inuyasha. "No matter what you did in the lifetimes before I met you, I can see the good in you, and I know that there's a lot of it. There's a lot more good in you then you would ever know. I don't care what you did before I met you! I… I love you, Inuyasha, and no matter what you've done before I met you, I will still love you."

He shook his head, trying to tell her that there were things she could never understand about his life, trying to tell her that saying that was like selling your soul to the Devil, but she lifted her head before he could warn her of what she was really saying. Her lips surrounded his, and he eagerly responded with the kiss. He lifted her, her legs wrapping around his waist. Inuyasha turned, knowing that there was a couch somewhere in the room.

Finding it, he lowered them down to it, pressing Kagome into the leather couch and leaning over her. His stopped kissing her for a moment, his tongue licking her lips in a kind of primal grooming. Kissing her again, his tongue slipped passed her red lips to run along the roof of her mouth, exploring the body he longed to know intimately. She was still young, especially compared to Inuyasha, but he knew she would be a stunning young lady, and he could wait a few more years, if he was able to put off killing her for that long. His strong hands ran down the sides of her body, and back up to move down her arm and find her hand buried in his black hair. He entwined his fingers with hers, securing himself from doing anything with which she might not be comfortable.

Beneath him, feeling the blood pounding in her veins and wondering if Inuyasha could hear it, Kagome let out a sigh, feeling her body tremble. She felt herself wanting to gasp at the slow, gently movements, and desiring to tell him how long she had wished for him to be like this with her. As well as how much she wished he had the puppy ears so she could play with them as they kissed. She slowly pushed him up, giving her a chance to speak for a moment.

"Inuyasha… my mother…"

He shook his head fiercely. Kagome found his brown eyes didn't need to be the gold eyes of a predator to look primal and fierce, protective even. That was just Inuyasha shining through. "I will never take your mother from you, Kagome. And regarding your brother…"

Seeing the way his earnest eyes began forlorn, Kagome kissed him quickly, and stroked his cheek with her free hand. "Inuyasha… don't." There was no explanation she could give him to explain how she could still love him despite the horrible things he had done. Often, she couldn't explain it herself. All she knew was that when she was with him, it was like being with… nothing she had ever found before.

They kissed again, his lips beginning to move down her neck, and the hand still playing with his hair touched the tips of his ears, finding them to be slightly pointed. Inuyasha could hear the pulsing of her blood in her neck, and he moved away from her neck faster. He didn't want to bite her, especially not now, not like this. Not when it was bad enough that her mother could enter the room and find them making out on a couch as it was.

Inuyasha released her hand, both of his needed to start undoing the light sweater she wore. Kagome's hands fumbled with the high collar of his school uniform, though eventually she got it open enough to see his powerful chest. She lifted herself up, flinging the sweater to the nearest chair when Inuyasha finished unbuttoning it. Then his hands started to undo the pale blouse she wore, and she began to get nervous.

Mumbling his name, her fingertips touched his hands, and he stopped. Inuyasha's heavy breathing made her hair shimmer in the light of the library. His brown eyes were begging, pleading for something to satiate him, when the doorbell rang, and they heard her mother holler that the pizza had arrived.

Kagome snuck off the couch, fixing her shirt and hair, and putting her sweater back on. "We'll find your books after supper," she promised him. Kagome smiled softly. "Inuyasha? I'm actually… kind of happy that you're staying for supper."

His only response was a small smile as he reached out and took her hand, holding it as they went to the kitchen.

-

"I never realized that you could eat human food," Kagome said, stifling a yawn with her shoulder as she put the dishes away. She leaned against the counters, watching Inuyasha with his arms up to his elbows in soapy water as he did the dishes.

"My physiology is quite complicated." Inuyasha pulled the plug and dried his hands off on a towel and offered him his wrist. He gestured at it. "Go ahead. Take a reading of my pulse."

She wrapped her hand around his wrist after hanging the dish towel up. Kagome was surprised to find that Inuyasha actually had a heartbeat. "Why do you have a pulse? I mean, your heart doesn't need to pump, does it?"

"Unfortunately, since we turn to ash almost immediately after we die, no one has ever been able to dissect our bodies and see exactly how we differ from human ones. Oh, I'm certain there are a few of us who wouldn't mind dissecting others of our kind alive, but we have laws protecting that kind of stuff. Basically, this is what we figure: to us, human blood is food because it possesses nutrients we need, and more importantly, it possesses a great deal of untapped power. This power is what we use to sustain ourselves, but we have to keep ourselves satiated with it to avoid going into a frenzy or becoming weak enough to be killed off by others of our kind. In turn, some of us are able to use this power to ingest human food. Our bodies will then immediately use some of that power to make our stomachs and intestines function in the normal human fashion. Our bodies will break down the food. We may even absorb nutrients, but there's no guarantee that if we do, they will prove useful to us. Afterwards, to save energy, the power making the digestive system work again will shut down again until it's needed."

"So how does your body absorb blood then?" Kagome inquired, fascinated.

Inuyasha shrugged. "Don't know. It doesn't take that long though, for our bodies to absorb it, so it might be instantaneous, getting absorbed by the muscle tissues of our esophagus as soon as we swallow." He began to stack up the pile of new books on the kitchen table. "Thank your mother for a wonderful evening, please, Kagome. I'm afraid that I need to get going now. And you should get some sleep for school tomorrow. It's almost eleven."

"And I have a test," she agreed, groaning. Kagome paused, and then bolted to barricade the door out of the kitchen with her body. Her blue eyes were direct, staring at Inuyasha with an expression he didn't like. "You have to go because you need to feed, don't you? Sunset was around nine, I was late getting home, and would have gotten here at a quarter past, which means that you've been here since you woke up. You need to go because you're going to drink blood!"

"Yes, Kagome," Inuyasha said in a rather dull voice. "That _is_ what I am going to go do. That's because I need blood to _live_."

She straightened up taller, looking brave. It lasted all of two seconds, when she suddenly appeared shy and scared. "Inuyasha… you don't have to hunt. I mean, obviously I know that the hunt is your favorite part of the evening, but there's something else you can do. There's _me_, Inuyasha. You can bite _me_."

Kagome could already start to see his answer in eyes; it was an ardent no. Kagome reached out and touched the back of the hands that held the books to his chest. "Inuyasha, I'm willing for you to do it. I'm willing to let you have as much of my blood as you need, for tonight. I mean, obviously I can't give it to you every night, because I need to regenerate the blood that I lost. I've seen the way you look at my neck, felt the way you kiss me, and you want it. I know you do, because I _want_ you to do it just as much."

He blinked, looking down at her like she was crazy and he hadn't heard properly. "You want me to bite you?" he repeated in an awed voice. Kagome fervently nodded his head. He was hungry, and if she wanted this as much as he did… Inuyasha sighed. "Where do you feel most comfortable?"

* * *

1. Do you live here?

2. Yes, I am a student.

3. What are you studying?

4. I am studying science. I am studying blood.

5. Bastard.

6. I'm home.


	8. Riding the Fire

AN: I am almost done exams! Yay! And this is the last update until those exams will be over. I am also going home this weekend to dote upon my cat and to celebrate my 6th month anniversary with my best friend (which, as I have three midterms as son as I come back) will probably consist of me watching _Hamlet_ with him (I have to know that play for English class… again) and then me begging him to help me study my Latin vocabulary. So enjoy, everyone! - I know I will be tugging at my hair to keep myself from writing fan fics and cracking down on studying!

Aamalie: To the best of my knowledge, it does snow in Japan. However, it doesn't get as cold there as does in the Maritimes, which is rather where I kind of pictured this story taking place, rather than in some metropolis. I am working on getting better grades

Blue Puppy: And I haven't even gotten to Miroku and Sango yet. They are hotter.

Siren: I don't know. I completely and utterly missed out on the whole one arm vs two thing. How exactly I missed that, I don't know. But it is pretty sexy. - Medieval England is actually oddly boring. And you're right. I need to improve vampire Sesshy. He isn't sexy enough yet.

Furi: I promise you, that when Miroku makes his next appearance, it will be a big one! Promise! And you're right, but then… wouldn't you want to be bitten by a vampire too? And yes, he can. This is based on VtM again. You can take a bit of blood, just a snack, or a meal, but if you take beyond that they need hospitalization (or vampire blood) and if you take enough to kill them it's either becoming a vampire or dying.

Lyn: I always do.

Lily: I promise you, there will be more MS in the future. I promise!! (As soon as I finish exams).

Ninalee-chan: Yay for appreciation of the cliffie! And I think I deal with the risqué. The main point of it was, though, that Miroku isn't the cute, cuddly guy from the series, and that Sango has some major trust issues to work out with him if they are ever going to get together. He did kind of kill her.

Starzki: If it was a _baker's_ dozen naked Kouga slaves, would you do it? And I promise, Miroku will come back with a bang in the next chapter!

Dark Slayer: Meet Mr. Cliffie. Enjoy the sister of Mr. Cliffe, Ms. End. -

Enjoy, everyone!

**Chapter Eight: Riding the Fire**

September 21, Thursday, 11:10 pm

Inuyasha held Kagome's hand as she led him up the steps to her bedroom. His heart beat wildly. She pushed open the door, pulling him into her dim room, and she shut the door behind her. The only light in the room was the filtered artificial lights of the street which cast the outlines of leaves and tree branches on the floor of her bedroom. Kagome indicated for him to be quiet, and she began searching through her drawers for a suitable nightgown. Finding one, she disappeared into the adjoining washroom to change, leaving Inuyasha alone in her room.

Finding everything he had ever wanted to know about her at his fingertips, Inuyasha began running his hands along the things in her room. He touched the spines of the books, the ridges telling him which ones she had read the most. His hand fell to the desk, where her essays lay open, and a thesaurus sticking out over the corner of the desk. He pushed it back for her so it wouldn't fall off. The night stand was almost entirely bare. A book upside down lay on the clock radio, and the lamp on the stand was decorated with fuzzy stickers of unicorns, a memoir of a child in the room of a young lady. That's when he reached the bed. The comforter on it was soft, and he found it irresistible to slip down and sit on the mattress. His hand wandered over to the pillow, and before he was aware of it, he was picking up the pillow and holding it, burying his face in it and smelling Kagome's shampoo and body wash, feeling everything good and familiar he loved about her wrapping around him as tightly as his immortality.

"Are you smelling my pillow?" Kagome asked quietly, the light in the washroom flicking off and sending the room into shadows once more.

Lifting his face from the pillow, his eyes, as brown as they were, could still see her perfectly well in the dim room. She had searched for pajamas that would allow Inuyasha access to her neck and avoid getting blood everywhere. She had found a nightgown made of sheer material and silk underneath, a hand-me-down from her grandmother that she had always loved. Moving closer to Inuyasha, it swayed when she walked, making her look sensuous to him. But to Kagome, it made her feel like the princess she had always pretended to be when she wore the dress when she had been a little girl.

She sat down next to him on the bed, feeling unnatural cold move up her arms and spread to the rest of her body. They were matched by the intensity of his gaze, and he looked as if he were staring at an idol. She covered his hands with hers, peeling the pillow from his hands and placing it back down on the bed. "I take it that this means you like it."

He nodded, his mouth open and he was speechless. Kagome laughed quietly, trying not to disturb her mother, who was watching TV in her bedroom. Kagome tried to think of what to say, tried to act normal even though she felt… funny. She felt nervous, excited, but strangely calm. She knew that Inuyasha wouldn't hurt her, and she really did want to experience what it would be like to know that it was her blood that was sustaining him, feel those sharp teeth… she'd heard that it could be addictive. She merely wondered if she was doing all this right. What if she had forgotten to wash behind her ears? What if her blood tasted horrible?

'Calm down, Kagome!' her mind snapped at her. 'This is just like making out, isn't it? Of course it is, and you were just doing that a moment ago without any trouble whatsoever! When you kiss him, do you wonder if he likes the taste of your lip gloss? Of course not! So shut the hell up already!'

As if picking up on her nervousness, Inuyasha's hand reached out, and brushed down her hair. He stopped staring at the way the dress flowed around her, reminding him of days long gone by where women seduced men not with tight-fitting clothes, but with the way the clothes moved around them.

"Have you ever had anybody do this willingly before?" she asked quietly.

Inuyasha nodded. "Once or twice. They were nothing more than acquaintances though. This… is something special. And I don't even know what to do first. I'm five hundred years old, and I'm tongue tied."

"Why do you have to say anything at all?" Inuyasha was silent at her question. She leaned forward slightly, peering at him, and her face slowly brightened. "Inuyasha? Could you please… you know, be the other you?"

His eyebrow rose when he realized what she wanted. She was actually asking for gold eyed, fanged, puppy-eared Inuyasha? For a brief moment, he wondered if she was clinically insane. Then his ears disappeared, his black hair falling over them, and they suddenly reappeared at the top of his head, white triangles covered in velvety fur. His fangs sharpened, forcing his lips to part slightly so that he didn't accidentally cut himself on them. The brown of his eyes melted away into predatory gold, at the same time that his hair lightened. His hair went from black to silver so slowly that Kagome's eyes could not register the change and it seemed more instantaneous.

She smiled when she saw Inuyasha back, but he was confused by her expression. He made a note to ask her about it, and it was almost forgotten when she reached out and touched his ears. His intake of breath was sharp when the tip of her fingers gently moved down the edge of his ears, barely rubbing the sensitive flesh between her fingertips. Kagome leaned inwards, and Inuyasha reacted without a second thought as he gathered her to him, and kissed her tightly.

Kagome was far from afraid of making the first move. As soon as she saw the way his lips moved when he touched her, the way he looked so timid in her room, she was amazed that she had been able to corner someone so powerful. Kagome didn't want him to be cornered. She didn't want a vampire as a pet, she wanted only Inuyasha. She kissed Inuyasha back just as fiercely. When the bed touched her back, his body warming her between the thin layers that separated their flesh, his hands tightened at her sides, running from the edge of her breasts to the thin skin covering her hips. Kagome was taken by surprise, and she parted enough from the bed to let out a mew of pleasure when his hands barely brushed by the side of her buttocks.

He seized his opportunity, but feared being evicted. He didn't want Kagome to allow herself to be touched in a way she didn't like all because she wanted him to stay there to avoid hurting someone else. Inuyasha would rather kill a hundred humans than hurt one hair on her head, a feeling that would lead to some complications, but Inuyasha was willing to let them live as long as possible.

His tongue slipped past her lips, flicking the roof of her mouth before retreating. Kagome moaned under him, closing her eyes tightly and letting herself get lost in the experience. Inuyasha grinned when he saw that she was enjoying herself. His hands moved down her body to rest on his hips, slowly drawing up the thin fabric of the nightgown. He nudged her chin with his nose, and she tilted her face up, allowing his tongue to clean her skin. Inuyasha's hand moved under the nightgown, and he was momentarily interrupted when she pulled his black shirt over his head, flinging it to the floor.

His hand slipped again under the fabric of her robe, and her young body trembled. Inuyasha's blood pounded in his veins. He could scarce believe that she was actually going to _allow_ him to taste her blood, her very essence of life. It was a pleasant dream and a nightmare rolled into one. Inuyasha wanted to be slow, he wanted to taste all of her flesh before he dared pierce her skin, but at the sound of her shallow breathing, the way her body touched his, the way she kept her head to the side, exposing herself to him as she brushed his long hair so it made his vision a silvery mist, he found that he simply could not control himself.

Wanting to say something to calm her down, no words would work. Everything sounded stupid. Instead, he felt a rumbling sound come from his chest, vibrating into Kagome. Neither of them could believe that he seemed to be purring!

Inuyasha's warm tongue licked at her skin once more, marking the flesh and making her sigh his name. He thought she sounded excited, maybe even happy, but he wrote it off as being simply his imagination. His lips kissed the skin, feeling the blood underneath the thin layer of pale epidermis. His felt his teeth grow a little more, and his clawed hands nestled on her hip, keeping her pressed firmly in place. His breath made her neck feel cold, and she shivered, but Kagome wasn't afraid. Even if he accidentally killed her, for that was what fate had decided, she would be able to sustain him, and he would not hurt someone else for at least one more day.

Fangs aching, he bit her quickly, and her body tensed. Then came the pleasure. Her body relaxed, and she sighed again. Waves of pleasure washed gently over Kagome, calming her down, pouring into every piece of Kagome. She felt her blood slip outside of her body, but it didn't hurt. It felt… _good_. She felt alive. It was as if the moment his teeth had broken her skin, she had become aware of her own fragile existence and rejoiced in her humanity as it died and she became a goddess, pouring out strength, goodness, and life.

She clung to him as his lips drew forth drop after drop of blood, moving with him, dancing with eternity in the form of a man. It was languid, warm, and Kagome felt safe. No, not safe. The Goddess was never safe when she was with the God. The God was her counterpart, destruction and chaos, her balance, her perfect other half. She was never safe with the God, for they always had to fight to keep their balance. She simply… _was_.

He lifted his head. Her blood dripped from the corner of his bruised mouth, black in the absence of light. But how could it be absent of life if his hair was moonlight, if his eyes were the sun? How could it be dark when he looked at her and she felt radiant?

"I took too much," he admitted, his primal ears moving down. He lifted his wrist to his mouth, and she knew what it was that he wanted to do. She could not fight with the God over this matter. The Goddess knew what she had to do to keep the balance flowing, and his blood would sustain her until her body recovered, the same way her blood made him strong.

"No," she said weakly, raising an arm to his throat. His silver hair was still entwined with her fingers. "Not there. Here." She pointed at his neck, running the tip of her nail down the same trail he had made while grooming her. "Let me have you the same way you had me?"

He shivered at the idea. It had been bad enough exposing his throat to Sesshomaru when he became a vampire. But what could Kagome do to him? He nodded, and searched for something to cut himself with. He found only his own claws, but they would suffice. He slashed his vein, and leaned down, his blood dropping on Kagome's cheeks, black tears she could not shed. Her mouth covered the wound, and as he had done to her, she did back to him. The balance, as far as Kagome was concerned, was completed.

Then she felt the first taste of his blood, as she sucked at his neck, her tongue now and again pushing at the wound, making Inuyasha hiss in pain and hold her tightly. The blood ran down her throat in a river of fire, burning her rather than warming her, the strength of a God filling the caverns of her veins created when the Goddess had left her. As she drank his blood, _she_ was the God, _she_ was the one with all the power; the tamer of the night, the wild beast.

Clawed hands pushed her away when she leaned forward, trying to worm out from underneath Inuyasha. She succeeded, her legs clamping to his side as she tried to move so that she could weight down his body with hers and rocked to the blood she drinking, to ride the fire that threatened to destroy everything good within her.

"Kagome!" Hearing her name hissed, she lifted her head to look down at the God, and for a brief moment, she found he was afraid. Then she blinked, and whatever had caused him to be afraid was gone.

She smiled at him sweetly, blushing as she dried his blood from her lips before she cleaned his as well, erasing all signs of their nighttime feast. Then, without a hint of knowledge about her position on his body, or the way her body looked from his view under her, heedless of the way her breasts were visible to his hungry eyes in the slitted lights from the blinds, she stretched, nearly sending him into a feeding frenzy. Kagome stopped straddling him and moved to other side of the bed, slipping under the covers.

Inuyasha watched her, and then bent to get his shirt from the ground. He felt the bed move, and the cotton sheets rustle, and then arms that were frail to him wrapped around his shoulders. Inuyasha could barely see from the affects of her blood on his system, but he could still hear fine.

"Please," she said, and he could hear how much she meant it. "Stay the night with me? I mean, just a little bit longer, until I fall asleep?"

Though he knew it was probably silly, Inuyasha consented. Even when he had been human, centuries before, he had never felt as he had at that moment. Wrapping his arms around her, feeling the way she melted against his body as if she were made just for him, the scent that haunted him so close now that if he opened his mouth he could taste it, he was amazed at the world.

Even when he had been a knight, there was no one he wanted to protect and love as much as Kagome.

-

Waking up the next morning, Kagome wondered first why the sun was so blinding, her alarm clock so loud. That's when she remembered the night before, and instantly felt regret. She had drunk Inuyasha's blood. And, if he had truly taken enough of hers to warrant needing vampire blood to speed her recovery, then she was more vampire than human for the day, until the vampire blood dwindled out against the increasing human cells. She'd been an idiot.

Sango.

Sango would know. She was the Slayer, after all! Sango would know that it was the power of a vampire which made her face the day and made her body move. She wouldn't even need to see the bite mark on her neck to know that Kagome had exchanged blood with a vampire. And it sure as hell wouldn't take her very long to figure out with which vampire she had dallied.

"Do you have to go?" a tired voice asked, close to her ear. The breath of the male voice brushed her skin, and she recognized the familiar feeling of Inuyasha's arm circling her waist. His hand tightened around hers, and she lifted her head from the crook of his arm, her pillow hidden beneath his head. Had she been using Inuyasha as a pillow for the whole night?

"Yes. I have a test today." Kagoem groaned and rubbed her eyes. Inuyasha didn't put up resistance when she got out of bed. Instead, he pulled the covers over his head, trying to hide from the sunlight. Sango had obviously been right about Inuyasha. She had heard that many vampires would become in tremendous pain when they were even around sunlight, but Inuyasha wasn't having any trouble at all. He'd been in the sunlight since the sun had risen half an hour ago, and Kagome hadn't noticed the slightest thing wrong with his skin. In the movies, didn't vampires usually burst into flames when their skin was exposed to sunlight?

Kagome began to search through her drawers for clothes to wear to school, when she saw her reflection in her mirror. Her blue eyes were flecked with gold, and there was a strip of white in her hair. It was amazing. The blood had actually started to turn her. Her skin was purer, her lips darker, and when she opened her mouth, she found her teeth were sharper. Had it only been Sango that would know about her trespass with Inuyasha, she would have gone to school and risked the wrath of her friend. Eventually, she knew that Sango would come around to seeing things her way. But this was too much. She couldn't hide her eyes or hair!

"Move over, Inuyasha," she told him, sighing. Kagome tugged at the covers, and eventually she was admitted. "I think I'll get Mom to call me in sick today."

"You're going to skip your test?"

"Shh!" Despite herself, Kagome giggled, and for some reason, the warmth of the sunlight soaking through the covers made her slowly fall back asleep.

-

Sango had been aware that Kagome wasn't in school for a long time. It started off when Kouga came in class late, and looking hungry, complaining that he was hungry enough to eat his desk because Kagome hadn't been available to give him his Joeys Louis. At lunch time, she and Kouga escaped to the library, hoping that she might have shown up late for school, but Kagome still did not show. By English class, Kagome sat by herself in the corner of the class, the empty desk beside her causing her to worry. She'd just seen Kagome last night, and she hadn't seemed sick at all, nor did she seem like the type of girl who would skip all day because of one pop test. So where was Kagome?  
Her questions were put aside when all the loud talking stopped, and the door opened. Everyone sat in their desks quietly, perhaps hoping that by appearing good and innocent, their teacher would pity them and make them not take the test. However, the silence became real and total when a new woman walked into the room. Even Sango's sharp ears couldn't hear a drop of breath.

She was probably the most amazing woman that Sango had ever seen, and that included all her previous lifetimes and vampires with unearthly beauty. She was tall and slender. She wore a wool skirt that came down to her ankles, covering the tops of her lace up, high-heeled dress shoes. Her top was a white blouse, with not a spot of other color on it. She was covered almost from neck to ankle, and her clothes were hardly form-fitting, but Sango could still tell that the woman would have a form similar to hers, firm muscle lacing all her bones. It was something about the way that she walked…

Her hair was long and dark, almost as long as Sango's. While Sango preferred keeping it up in a ponytail, this woman wore it down, letting it swirl and turn about her as she wrote her name on the board. The class was still silent.

"Your English teacher has had to leave the town for personal reasons that no one will question unless they want to be dealt with quickly and severely. I do not take lightly to my class being interrupted by foolish questions." Many of the students began to look uncomfortable at the calm silence of her voice. Sango had heard vampires that sounded warmer than her! Her brown eyes, too, were ridiculously cold. "My name is Ms. Umbra…"

"Umbra the umbrella," one stupid student muttered. In the quiet classroom, the words could have been a sonic boom. Normally such a comment would have received a few snickers from the more immature people in the classroom, but everyone was so shaken, that their only response was a look of pity.

Sango rolled her eyes, and leapt to the teacher's defense. She couldn't care less who they teased, and she wasn't _really_ trying to defend the teacher, she just couldn't stand idiots. "Umbra is Latin in origin, you dipstick. It means 'ghost' or 'shadow'."

"That's quite right," Ms. Umbra agreed. She leaned on the desk, and looked at the class. "I'm canceling the test you had scheduled for today." There were no whoops or cheers at this news. "Obviously grammar is not what you people need to learn. For the next two weeks, we will be studying the evolution of the English language, followed by grammar, and then, we can finally try start conquering the language of Shakespeare after we study poetry for three weeks."

Sango relaxed in her chair. It was going to be a very boring next month and a half. Maybe she should try sleeping. Out of curiosity, she peered closer at Ms. Umbra, using skills she had stolen from other vampires. Ms. Umbra's aura was bright with power, but there was something about it she didn't like, swirling masses of colors she didn't understand. Unfortunately, there was only one person she could ask if she wanted to know what they meant…

Miroku.

-

Kouga and Sango were trying to stuff Kagome's homework into their knapsacks in front of Sango's locker when Kuranosuke walked by. A chill went through both of them, and they stared after the tall man. For once, they were both on the same level of thinking. They merely had to glance at each other, and it was decided. Kagome wasn't sick; Kagome wouldn't skip a test, therefore it had to be that Kuranosuke had gotten to Kagome, the way he had threatened to do so.

They stuffed the bags into the nearly empty locker, slammed it shut, and before Kuranosuke could realize that the hurried footsteps coming down the hallway were meant for him, Sango and Kouga both tackled him to the ground. Kuranosuke didn't even have time to yell for help before Sango's hands laced through his ponytail and slammed his forehead into the ground. Kouga was more than happy to merely try and keep the older boy pinned down as Sango demanded what he had done with Kagome. Kouga did, however, manage to get in a good shot to Kuranosuke's kidneys when he struggled to get up despite Sango sitting on one shoulder and Kouga on his back.

"Get off him!"

Kagura's voice was thunderous in the hallway. Her red eyes matched the color of her slim business attire and the aura filling the entire hallway. Startled, Sango and Kouga leapt off Kuranosuke, both looking pissed off at having gotten caught.

The principal lifted Kuranosuke up by the back of his shirt with only one hand, inspecting the work that Sango and Kouga had done. Blood ran down from his mouth, one of his teeth lay on the floor, and he had a black eye. His shoulder was immobilized from holding all of Sango's weight, and tufts of his hair were floating from his head, actually ripped straight from his scalp.

She glared at them, still holding Kuranosuke up with her right arm, her other hand on her hip. "What the hell made you two tackle him like this?"

"He did something with Kagome!" Kouga accused, pointing a trembling finger at him.

"Kagome phoned in sick," Kagura replied with an arched brow. Then she figured it all out. She sighed, and began marching Kuranosuke down the hallway, toward the nurse's office. "Come with me, you two. Look, it's noble that you two want to look out for your friend, but you can't be picking fights in my school. I know what you three are going through. Kids are mean. I'm not so old that my memories of high school have been clouded over. Between you and I, when I was a kid, I used to get swirlies, and have food thrown at me, and all that other junk. But I was smart enough that if I wanted to pick fights, I'd do it off of school grounds."

They followed her into the nurse's office, where she found the new English teacher instead of Kaede, the plump and cheerful nurse that clucked when she bound wounds and treated each headache as if it could be the tenth plague of Egypt. (Which meant that there were very few people complaining about headaches as that was likely to get you a needle, blood test, and getting sent to the hospital for observation.)

"Kikyo!" Kagura exclaimed, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

She held up a bloody finger. "I accidentally stapled it, so I thought I'd get some antiseptic or band-aids or something." She motioned with her head to the boy Kagura was flinging unto the low bed. Kuranosuke was starting to show signs that he was alive, groaning and holding his jaw. "What happened to him?"

Then she saw Sango, and there was a brief glimpse of warmth and understanding in her eyes. It was gone just as quickly, and she frowned. "Tackled him from behind, did you?" she asked, brushing aside some of his bangs to see the bruises forming on his forehead. "That was quite dishonorable of you both. And ganging up on him…"

Sango felt herself blush. This Kikyo woman was right. It was dishonorable of her. 'Next time,' she promised herself, 'I'll challenge him. One on one, off of school grounds. Next time, I'll be sure to break something of his."

Kouga was still listening to the teachers talk as they discussed calling an ambulance to take him to the hospital and make sure his brain was okay. Kouga snorted and leaned closer to Sango. "Why bother? It's not like he uses it anyway."

That was when Sango knew she liked Kouga.

-

Knocking on the door disturbed Kagome. She was hoping that it would go away, but when it didn't, she forced to answer it. Kagome gave herself a quick glance in the mirror. She hadn't felt like eating all day, though Inuyasha had tried to get her to eat something. As a result all the signs that she had drunk Inuyasha's blood were still there. Her hair still had a silvery sheen to it, her eyes still had gold flecks, and her canine teeth were still just a little too sharp. Kagome had thrown a bandana over her head, and she hoped that anyone she met at the door would be the kind to avoid her gaze, as wearing sunglasses inside would only make people more curious.

She answered the door, and had a plastic bag full of homework shoved at her chest by Sango. She glanced at it, confused, and then realized what was going on. She looked up to smile at the taller girl, trying to figure out how to go about doing that without revealing the fact that she had developed fangs overnight. When she looked up, however, she saw that Sango already knew.

Sango wasn't even looking back at Kagome. She was staring deep into the house, as if she knew that in the shadows lurked one of the two strongest vampires in the town. She seemed to be listening to something only she could hear, watching something only she could see. Then her eyes suddenly turned on Kagome, and they were frightening in their anger. Pure, unbridled hatred lay there, and something deeper in Sango seemed to be fighting it.

Eventually, whatever was fighting the hatred won this round, and it seemed to leave her looking weak and tired. Her shoulders dropped slightly, and she let out her captured breath very slowly. Sango said nothing about why she looked so worn out, or why she had looked at Kagome with that anger, anger more ancient than anything Kagome had ever encountered.

She merely turned and walked away.


	9. Two to Tango

AN: One exam to go and 92 on my Latin midterm. Not to blow my own horn, but WOOT! Now if only I get a mark like that in history classes…::sweatdrops:: I'm certain that everyone will be happy to find out that our favorite vampires I back in this chapter!

Starzki: Kouga gets a little lovin' in this chapter (I think). And the blood thing… not that bad of an idea, a sweet one that showed a little of Kagome's darker side, which was the main point of it all.

Lily Thorne: You know, until I edited this chapter, I even forget that she was supposed to ask that, and so you have a long time to wait (she asks in chapter 18). But I agree. I think Sango does want to be happy, deep down. This is just what anger does to people… it keeps them from being anything except driven, defensive and aggressive people. Sounds weird, but if you think about it, Sango will defend her friends to her last breath and go down fighting for it.

Furi: My, everyone seems to want Kouga to have some loving. Maybe I should introduce Ayame into the mix.::grins:: And it's simply platonic. It's more a matter of that having significance because Kouga is not the kind of person it seems that Sango would normally make friends with: he's social, and silly, smokes pot and remains very ambiguous when it comes to opinions, where as Kagome is very open and honest, Sango's complete opposite. Kouga seems more like Sango would punch for annoying her, and yet because of his steadfastness to Kagome and the small ways he tried to protect her, he has become a good friend.

Aamalie: Yes, it's platonic. Though now that I see everyone feels Kouga needs some lovin' too, maybe I might add in a kiss somewhere just so he has something to be happy about.::devil horns pop out::And Miroku is in this chapter, as is Sango. And trust me, in later chapters things will get more and more interesting between the two of them.

Ninalee-chan: He was a little afraid because of how she acted. Sweet little Kagome wanted to drink Inuyasha dry, which would pretty much leave him near dead and cause him to attack the first human he saw… which would have been her. Kagome has a dark side, like everyone else, and it's starting to show. And I quite like the Kikyo in this fic, so it should be quite good. ::pets the plot twists he has hiding in the future::

Enjoy!!

**Chapter Nine: Two to Tango**

September 22nd, Friday, 9:30 pm

"It's dark out," Kagome said as she and Inuyasha curled up on her couch. Their fingers played with each other—with their clothes and long hair or tracing patterns on their arms—as the television played quietly over the stacks of books Inuyasha was bringing his partner. "You can go home now." Her voice was soft enough so that her words sounded more like a suggestion then a command.

"I know," he agreed. His lips tickled her ear, and part of Kagome wished that he would bite her again. "I don't really want to go, though. If I do, I'll have to explain where I was to Miroku, and I don't really want to do that. It's my business, where I was."

Kagome's eyebrows helped her expression look worried. "Why would he care about where you went? You're five hundred years old! Surely by now you're old enough to take care of yourself."

"True, but… if your brother had been eighteen, and meant to come home every night, and then one night, he hadn't come home, wouldn't you demand to know where he had spent the night, simply because you were his big sister? Miroku's my big brother, so to speak, so no matter how old I become, so long as I live with him, he'll always be looking out with me."

"So why don't you move out on your own?"

Inuyasha smiled into Kagome's black hair. "Because being in a pack is what my people do. I may not look like it, but when I'm alone, I find myself hating every moment of it. Being in a pack means that I have people to watch out for, people to watch out for me. There is warmth, safety, and love in a pack. I just don't know how to explain to my pack-mate that I spent the night with you, that you allowed me to drink your blood, and you… still live." He felt her body freeze at the thought that he might have taken advantage of her offer by draining her dry, though the thought _had_ occurred to Kagome; she merely chose to never to acknowledge its presence.

At that, Inuyasha decided it was time to leave. He picked up his books after climbing off the couch, and Kagome followed him, walking him to the front door. She slipped her hand into his, and was surprised when Inuyasha suddenly stopped. She looked up, and found his nose wiggling slightly, reminding her of old 'I Dream of Jeanie' episodes. He really was quite dog-like, wasn't he?

"What's the matter?" she inquired gently. Before she could register what could happen, she found him dropping the books and pulling her down on the ground, covering her body with his to protect her. Through his hard body she could barely hear the glass window in the living room shatter, glass spraying everywhere. She felt a shard slice her hand as something heavy dropped, arching through the spot where she had just been standing.

He leapt up off her, in time to catch another rock being thrown at Kagome. Kagome saw who her assailant was and felt herself fill with fear, even more fear than that which she felt when Inuyasha bared his teeth to try and scare her away. It was Kuranosuke. He looked as if he had badly beaten, and she he knew he was going to make her look twice as bad if he got his hands on her. He clutched another rock in his hand, his knuckles white from his grip.

But that wasn't what scared Kagome. What scared her was that Inuyasha wasn't in his human form. What scared her more, was that he seemed to be becoming more and more primal. His claws seemed to become sharper, blood beginning to pillow under them as they grew into his skin, his ears were more pointed, his fangs longer and thicker, made for tearing flesh from bone rather than drinking blood. And his eyes. His eyes! Kagome had always thought that his eyes glowed, but suddenly, her simile turned real. His eyes were like a cat's, and though gold, when she looked at them they seemed to be a haunting shade of green in the bright lights of the living room.

Kuranosuke stared. The malicious laugh that came from Inuyasha's throat made Kagome want to run away. She was so afraid of it, so afraid of the menace rolling off of Inuyasha's body with the scent of masculine power that was normally concealed behind centuries of self-control, Kagome froze. Her throat was choked, her eyes could not blink.

"Didn't anybody ever teach you not to stare, _boy_?"

Kuranosuke began to back up, taking wavering steps. His frightened eyes slowly slid from Inuyasha and his monstrous form, to Kagome. For a brief moment, hatred flared there, but then the fear took hold again. "Call him off, Kagome!" She wondered what he expected her to do. "Call off your demon familiar or whatever he is! Call off whatever creature it is that you summoned! _Call him off_!" His voice was frantic, but was still ruthless.

Kagome knew that if she asked Inuyasha to stand down, Kuranosuke would still hurt her. Hurt her a lot. But then, Kuranosuke had seen Inuyasha in his vampire form. It was now Inuyasha's duty to silence him before he had the chance to tell anyone.

The insinuation that Inuyasha was some netherworld creature that Kagome could control made Inuyasha start growling, chuckling cruelly as he threatened to break every bone in Kuranosuke's body, calling him a stupid boy.

She knew she had to put a stupid to it. She couldn't let Inuyasha hurt Kuranosuke. Just because the football star wanted to hurt her, it didn't mean that she had to hurt him back. That was part of the morality she was trying to uphold. Kagome recalled one of the spells that she had seen that day while looking through books with Inuyasha. It wasn't all that good of a spell, and Kagome feared the three by three return she would receive. Three by three, the Wiccan Law that said that whatever a which did it wpuld always return to her times three. But the, wasn't that what Kuranosuke was for? To punish her for what she was about to do?

Reciting the spell quickly, Inuyasha hissed in pain when a sudden light around his neck blinded him. He glanced back at Kagome, his eyes narrowing. He'd only been trying to protect her, and now she was casting spells on him! He tried to speed his way to Kuranosuke, but she was too quick for him, shouting the first word that she thought of.

"SIT!"

Inuyasha felt a tugging at his neck, and he suddenly plummeted to the ground. Dirt, grass, and tiny pieces of glass jammed into his face as he landed. His body felt as heavy as a rock, and he had trouble moving. Kagome carefully climbed out the window, and knelt next to him. Drops of blood were potent to his senses, leaking out from the cut on her hand and the tinier ones on her feet from the glass on the living room floor.

She patted down his silver hair, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. I can't let you hurt Kuransouke. Not even when you were trying to protect me, I can't let you hurt him. This is _my_ fight."

Finally able to raise his head, he found her walking calmly toward Kuranosuke. He was getting over the fear that had immobilized him a moment ago and was walking forth to meet Kagome. Inuyasha could smell his blood and desire for pain—Kagome's pain—in the air. It made him feel unnaturally scared. Vampires weren't supposed to be afraid of anything, except for maybe the Slayer, but Inuyasha was scared for Kagome.

"But he wants to kill you!" he protested. Inuyasha was confused. He wasn't sure if he was upset because Kuranosuke might beat him to his duty, or if he simply didn't want to see Kagome get hurt. He was losing his touch, losing the desire for blood that had made Sesshomaru turn him into a vampire in the first place.

"I know," Kagome said quietly. She sank down into the only stance good enough for fighting that she knew. Her legs were braced, her fists in front of her as she had seen boxers do. Kuranosuke couldn't be any harder to fight then a vampire, right? Kagome glanced over her shoulder briefly. "He won't kill me, Inuyasha. That's not his fate…"

And then Kuranosuke attacked, as Inuyasha was bound to the ground and forced to watch.

-

Sango sat in her bedroom, trying hard not to cry. Each day, each lifetime, it became easier. Listening to her mother complain to her little twin brother, demanding how her daughter could have gotten expelled within a week of arriving at the new school. Sango filled herself fill with rage and bitterness. If only her mother understood! Fighting was what Sango did; at least this time she had been expelled for fighting someone in order to protect a _friend_. A _real_, _good_ friend. Sango hadn't had one of those in a few lifetimes, but she couldn't make her parent understand.

"You know, Mom," Sango heard Kohaku say, "I know this guy that Sango and that Kouga guy beat up together. I… I ah, actually have this tiny kind of crush on his sister. She's really sweet, but her brother's a dick. Did she ever tell you what he did to her on the first day of school? He groped her, Mom. He just walked right up to her and groped her. He…."

She shook her head, and picked up her hair brush. Her hair was unbound, and she was giving it a thorough brushing before Kouga arrived. Sango was grounded; for a long time. However, she was filled with pent up rage that she needed to expel. Sango wanted to fight again. Instead, she had asked Kouga if his offer of escorting her to the night club still stood. Dancing was almost as good as fighting. So, she was risking another two weeks of being grounded to sneak out and go clubbing with Kouga.

Finishing her hair, she was just doing up the last button on her skirt when she heard the whistle of a bird. It was Kouga's signal. Sango opened her window, grabbed her purse, and made sure that the clump of clothes in the bed looked liked a body. That accomplished, she jumped out of the window, soaring through the one storey fall to the ground. She landed lightly on her feet, and dug around in the bushes for the bike she had hidden there earlier. Finding it, she met Kouga in between the lamplights of the street.

Kouga looked good. His hair shone, even in the dim light, and he still wore his John Lennon style glasses, these ones tinted violet. His jeans were black, molding with his soft boots. He wasn't wearing a headband for once, more of his bangs hanging forward, darkening his whole face. It made Kouga look a little more… dangerous. He wore a blue t-shirt, and a jean jacket to ward off the slight September chill.

He lowered his glasses as he eyed Sango. She knew he had no interest in her, and he grinned as he kicked up his kickstand. "Don't worry, Sango," he teased, "I'm not going to tell Kagome how good you look tonight. She'd get jealous. All I ask is that you maybe put in a good word for me."

She hid her true feelings with a smile. Kagome. Kagome had drunk Inuyasha's blood. Why? Why had she done it? More so, from the bite marks she had seen on Kagome's neck, she knew that Inuyasha had drunk Kagome's blood. Was she planning on becoming a vampire, of losing everything good and absorbing the psyche of a maniac? Was that how she had seen Inuyasha killing her, poisoning her to death?

They rode to The Wall and parked their bikes a block away, walking up to the door. Nobody really seemed to know who they were. At least, unlike school they weren't met with odd stares and whispers. Nobody even acknowledged their presences, the other teenagers in the row forming tight cliques and paying attention to only themselves. Sango was rather glad, as it meant that her and Kouga could talk about stupid stuff like teachers or television, things that didn't mean anything in reality. It also meant that she didn't get any lewd glances from horny males. She hadn't dressed to impress them, she had dressed to be comfortable.

They were quickly let in to The Wall, and music blared. Sango covered her ears and had to shout to be heard by Kouga. "What the hell type of noise is this?"

"I told you they didn't play anything good! This is Britney Spears' new song, that 'Toxic' thing."

"How the hell did she write the beginning to the song? Sit on an accordion or something?" Sango envisioned a volume knob in her mind and turned it down. The sounds became less clearer, sinking down to a bearable level that, sadly, was still so loud she had to yell to be heard. When she saw the lights flashing back and forth, flashing the colors of the rainbow, she turned down the brightness and intensity of the visions her eyes admitted, and she felt better. It was so crowded, that she then turned down the sensitivity of her skin, so that the wind of somebody moving by her didn't make her suddenly turn and prepare to fight.

Kouga leaned over. She could no longer pick out the trace scents of marijuana on him, instead the scents of sweat and perfume capturing her attention. "So," Kouga asked her, "do you want to dance?"

She nodded. Yes, she wanted to dance until she dropped unconscious from exertion. Sango wanted to get out there and cut loose, to lose herself, forget that she had a wrathful mother, that she was the Slayer. People said that scent was the strongest form of remembrance, and Sango would have to agree. But when Kouga took her hand in his and led her out on the dance floor, she had to admit that music was the easiest way to forget everything.

The base of the music crashed into her. Sango didn't know what she was listening to, all she did was follow the rhythm to the music. Bodies touched her, but she didn't care. None of them were threats, merely fellow dancers. They were all dancing together, and she was dancing with Kouga. Kouga was merely bopping along, unable to dance to what he later referred to as "the hounds of hell baying with a bagpipe" and because he was too taken with Sango to notice the rhythm of the music.

Did she know what she looked like? Her hair whirled around her as she swayed back and forth, moving on the balls of her feet. Her miniskirt showed off her long legs as she wound them around his. Her stomach was toned when her shirt lifted enough for it to be revealed, and her tight, low-cut tank top did very little to hide the way her chest moved as she bounced and swayed. Had Kouga not already been claimed by Kagome, he might have actually been interested in her.

As it was, more of the males in the dance club were starting to pay more attention to the young lady moving in the crowd. There wasn't anything overly special about the way she moved, or how she was dressed, or looked, but there was _something_ about her out on the dancing square that told everyone she was different. It especially caught the attention of two dark-haired men whom had arrived at The Wall almost simultaneously. One of them sighed when he saw her, and wondered how he was going to explain this to his mother if Sango was caught. The other knew what it was, the presence that made her so alluring. Talent. Sango could actually dance.

She and Kouga soon took a breather. Glancing at the feminine watch hanging off her wrist, Sango was surprised to find that she'd been dancing for two straight hours. She felt slightly better, but she still wanted to dance some more. Kouga grinned at her. "I didn't know you dance. I thought that with your… ah… part time job, that you were kind of busy."

"You pick up a couple of things," Sango said with an earnest grin. Kouga would never question how she could do what she did on the dance floor. He simply took it as a natural talent, the way his were comedy and pestering teachers. "I can dance it all: salsa, waltz, rumba, swing… you name it, I can dance it."

"What about moshing?"

"That's _not_ a dance. That's a bunch of people all standing together and jumping up and down and purposely bumping into each other."

"Mashed potato?"

"Now that I can do."

"Oh, so moshing isn't dancing, but a hand gesture named after a kind of instant food can be?"

Their argument was interrupted when the sounds of some overplayed song was replaced with a slower tune. Sango was surprised. She didn't think that this kind of placed played slower songs. A boy her own age suddenly reached a hand out to her and asked her to join him. He was jostled aside by another boy, and that male by yet a third. Kagome grabbed Kouga's hand, and this time, she did the dragging.

After the slow song ended, Kouga vanished to go and get a drink, and Sango remained on the dance floor. She was moving blissfully to the music, her closed eyes still picking up the lights as they blinked on off or switched colors, when she felt _it_. There was a vampire in the room; she was certain of it. The crowd moved in closer, and she stopped dancing, moving slowly in a circle to try and pin point the source, find the monster. She mentally cursed, frustrated and furious, when she realized she hadn't even brought a cross with her. She wasn't even wearing a cross on a necklace, afraid that it might have gotten caught in her long hair when she danced.

No one saw her distress, no one knew that she was gazing to try and find someone. It was a mess of noise and bodies, and no one said anything about the man moving through the crowd, except a few comments of 'asshole' or 'cute' muttered under the breaths of people, as they were afraid of his reaction. Nobody dared pick a fight with him. He was hardly the most muscular male in the room, but there was something about him…

Sango didn't know he was there until his large hand pressed into her backside. A shiver of anger ran up her spine, and she readied herself to spin and attack him, but there wasn't enough room. Suddenly, the dance floor seemed claustrophobic. Even in the hot air of the club, his breath stirring her hair seemed hotter, his odor more obvious. When he moved, she could even hear the sound of his two earrings clinging together like Tinkerbell.

"Miroku."

The name was lost in the crowd. His large hand moved from her derriere around to her front, laying flat against her stomach. She felt his body press against her back. His body locked with hers, and she was forced to follow when he began to move to the music. His other hand took hers, moving it to the back of his head, his tight fingers keeping her hand from hurting him, of grabbing something valuable and pulling. Sango's free hand sat at her side, waiting for her fist to be needed.

He bent lower, his chin almost resting in the crook of her neck. "You, love, are a beautiful dancer." She was about to answer, but found that her mouth wouldn't work when his suddenly caught her earlobe, toying with it for a moment. 3 Doors Down blared in the air, 'When I'm Gone' filling the spaces between the moving bodies. "What I would give to capture the way you move and make you dance for me every time I need to feel inspired. Every time I need to feel…" His deep voice drawled on, and then his warm tongue licked the outline of her ear. His body moved against hers again, and she could feel how hard he was. "Aroused."

Sango's mouth worked again. "Let go of me this instant before I scream. Get out of my mind."

"Oh, but I'm not in your mind." His fingertips toyed with the top of her skirt. The hand that covered hers latched her fingers with his collar. His hand moved down her arm in gentle touches, coming to rest at the base of her breast, teasing her with her fears of being taken advantage of, leaving her waiting for that moment when he would grab her and she would scream bloody murder.

"Go ahead and try and attack me here, Slayer. How many people do you think will get in your way? How many bouncers will it take to pull you off of me? You don't have a weapon on you, so there's no way that you'd be able to kill me. There's no way at all. Someone will call the police, and then they'll see you got expelled. They'll see just how many schools kicked you out for violence. They'll take you from your family, from your dear twin brother, and you won't be able to slay anymore. And your dear twin… when I get bored, who else am I going to turn to but dear little Kohaku…"

"Bastard," she hissed. Sango clung to his shirt collar tighter, resisting the temptation of using her hand to rip out his lying throat. Her body shook from fear and anger, and she clung to him to support herself, her mind more focused on keeping her thoughts protected from the probing touches of his powers. "If you touch my brother…"

"Continue to amuse me, little Sango, and I won't have need to hurt anybody else." His fingers continued under the top of her skirt, keeping her body right against his as they stroked the thin line of her panties. He grinned, and his nose nudged her hair as he took a deep breath. "All I want to do is dance. I've been watching you. You dance. Dance with me, little Sango."

Her body stiffened, and her hands held tighter as she tried to resist him. Sango was angry—furious—but there was something about the situation that made her want to give in. She wanted to lean against him of her own volition, let herself be carried away by the music, by her blood, by the seduction in his voice.

She fought it as hard as she could. This was what Miroku was good at: seducing unsuspecting girls. Sango knew what would happen if she gave into him. She refused to become another trophy death. Sango seized his wrist and pulled it off of her, her body starting to tremble now from how she had been touched. She had always wanted to be touched in a loving, consensual manner, but Sango had never gotten the chance, in all of her years. She'd never gotten the relationship with other mortals, always busy slaying. And then there was the dying at an early age issue…

His touch had hardly been consensual, but it had been gentle…

"Fine," she hissed, spinning around. "You want to dance? Let's dance."

Her hand slipped into his, her hand slamming down on his shoulders as his gently placed itself on her hip. They had made a dent in the crowd, and there was such a fire in the air around them that people began to back up, getting out of the way from that heat. Miroku gestured to the dj, and a Latin number came on. They took the first step, and by the third, everyone was watching them.

Their forms were perfect, as they moved back and forth, their hips swaying to the music. Sango's eyes tried to focus on his chest, but it was half opened and a tight shade of black; she could see his muscles moving under his clothes. She dare not look any lower than that, and so, she had to focus on his eyes, risking hypnotism she wasn't sure she could stop anymore.

God. He had gorgeous eyes.

Miroku took her hand and spun her. When she came back, his arms were wound around her, and they were back to looking more like they had when they were first dancing. He grinned, and licked her cheek tentatively before she spun again. He loved the way anger flashed like lightning in her eyes whenever she looked at him. Miroku was toying with fire, and he loved it. She was so strong, so immovable! He would prove that he was stronger when he shredded her to pieces.

But that wasn't the only thing that got him off. No, it wasn't just the destruction that got Miroku off. No, it was the beauty of the destruction. He wanted to watch her tears fall, and he knew that it would be poetry when Sango would cry, and beg. And then he could rebuild her.

Why hadn't he ever thought of it before? Miroku wanted the Slayer blood. If he was able to break her though, if he was truly able to destroy that hatred that fueled her, it would leave her his bitch. Yes, a slithering girl that whispered in shadows that he was strong, fed his ego, and then he could have that blood whenever he wanted. And even though she was broken, it would always be Slayer blood, because until she died, there would not be another Slayer.

When Sango returned, their legs entangled, and she moved her body down his, supported by the leg between hers and the hand that grasped hers. The hand on her waist moved up to her shoulder when she moved down almost all the way to the ground, and touched her hair. Miroku smiled grandly when anger flashed again. Sango didn't like being touched at _all_, did she? He slowly pulled her up, moving his leg at the right angle so that it touched her intimately. His eyes hungrily watched her lips part, and then the anger became barely uncontrollable. The hand in his began to squeeze his hand until he heard his bones start to mash together, but he didn't care. The pain was nothing. The wound was nothing. It would be healed by tomorrow morning.

The music began its crescendo as he wiggled his hands out of hers and he tilted her backwards. Her head fell back from the way his hands pressed gently into her spine, exposing the white throat that Miroku could not wait to bite into. He grinned, and kissed her collarbone, quietly sniffing up her throat, smelling her subtle perfume and her sweat, smelling the fear in her blood and her frustration.

People were agape as Miroku carefully set Sango back on her feet. He smiled at her warmly, his dark eyes intense as they stared at her, memorizing the way that her young chest moved, the color of her cheeks and lips, the way her hair moved around her. As far as Miroku was concerned, Sango could be the witch in the strange little city, she was that hypnotizing. Slowly, the crowds returned to the dance floor, the strong grass green colors of jealousy filling Miroku's aural vision of the large crowd.

Saying not another word, Miroku turned and left. Kohaku would live this one night, because Sango had satisfied him. He saw the younger twin looking at him, a small, freckled girl sitting beside him and looking curious. Kohaku looked almost as mad as the Slayer. Miroku gave him a brief smile, before disappearing completely from the crowd of dancers and the flashing lights.

Rin looked up at Kohaku, curious. Maybe, just maybe, she should help them….


	10. The King of the School

AN: I accidentally edited chapter eleven, thinking that was what I was updating. Then I realized it was chapter ten. I felt all sad, and then I realized… this whole chapter is pretty much about Miroku. Isn't it grand? Six pages devoted almost entirely to our favorite vampire. ::sighs:: It's just what you need when you feel lonely. (My boyfriend just visited me for the weekend, and he just left… I feel sad… but he left me his shirt to wear so he still seems close. ::smiles stupidly::

… Wow. I just made this thing do a happy face... Word rocks! ::Is easily entertained::

Furu Iku: I can't say I hate her, but I hate what the media has done to her and what she has allowed to be done to herself. I'm sorry, but just because you don't want to put out a "childish" image it doesn't mean you have to screw chairs or wear very little clothes. And yes, I can guarantee that when they get together, it will be _very_ hot….

Fireblade: Wait till chapter eleven! It proves to you how many CSI episodes I've seen.

Siren: I love Latin dances as well. There's something about them that makes women look beautiful, mainly, I think, because the moves that they have are designed for women. I mean, just the basic three step makes hip move like… like butter on a hot knife!! ::rereads what she wrote and sweatdrops:: I really do need to work on my analogies.

Starzki: You know, that is a very good point. A bit of Kouga fluff could very well lighten the scenario when things get dark.. ::starts fooling with the plot to see if its possible::

Aamalie: Yes… sexxah bizzotch… :;wonders:: I realize that this story might not be as fluffy as DW, but hopefully the plot twists and the drama will make up for it.

Lily Thorne: Meh, I'd tell you about chapter nineteen, but I got writer's block. Hopefully I can fix it. My school library rents Buffy, so maybe I'll rent a whole season or something.

Ninalee-chan and her office: I love all of you! ::giggles: You guys are all so cute! And don't worry. After much discussion with some of my creative friends, we have come to a conclusion that involves everyone being in character and coming to a happy ending. (And thank you for the congrats… hopefully my other ones will be just as good as I need to maintain a 75 average and that 68 really isn't helping.)

Liz ou: He did get beaten up in the end of the last chapter by Sango and Kouga. ::smiles::

Enjoy, everyone!!

**Chapter Ten: The King of the School**

Saturday, September 23rd, 11:12 pm

Miroku rubbed his tired eyes as he sat hunched over another book, the jade box sitting in front of the large book Inuyasha had borrowed from Kagome. Miroku would have liked to spill his heart to his friend, but Inuyasha was not around lately. Miroku didn't know where Inuyasha had gone, although he could pick up colors of distress and apprehension whenever their paths crossed. What was so deeply troubling Inuyasha, Miroku knew not.

He sucked at a blood pack, wishing that he could go off and hunt, but the books that Inuyasha had brought were just as good as blood. He just wished that the blood packs tasted a little bit better. Yawning, Miroku tried to ignore the memories that had been surfacing lately, since he had started hunting for information on the jade box, and had been dancing—both literally and figuratively—with Sango.

---

_"Father!"__ Miroku was barely able to run in the sandals he wore. They were generally made for walking, not for running frantically. The rocks and sticks being thrown by the mob around them stung him, slapped him, bruised him, crushed him. He ignored them all, and wrapped his arm around the fallen old man, trying to protect him from the projectiles. _

_The old monk had tried to warn the villagers. There was an evil cloud hanging over the village, and the reason why the children were dying was because of that evil cloud. But the people of the village didn't believe him. They were scared to believe him. 'Everyone knows that demons which suck the blood of humans to stay immortal don't really exist!' they had cried. 'You're insane, old man!'_

_Miroku gently patted the cheek of the old man, worried at the stream of blood running down from his master's head. "Father? Father?!" His voice cracked, and so did the sound of his own skull when a rock struck him. Miroku blazed to life. Some of the more intuitive members of the crowd began to walk away when they felt his power rush forth, hot and heavy, like a monstrous breath. _

_He grabbed two of the rocks they had thrown and stood up. His dark robes matched the shade of his eyes, making Miroku look more demon than man. His voice was loud, chaotic, ripped straight from his lungs, cracking with the pain he felt. He threw the rocks back at the crowd as hard as he could, not caring if he aimed for man, woman, or child. They had all helped to hurt his master, and so, they all deserved to be hurt. "Leave him alone! Leave him alone, you bastards! He's an old man! He was just trying to help you!"_

_Something grasped his wrist when he bent to pick up another rock, and he looked down to see the man using the last of his strength to stop him from throwing anything else. Never had the man Miroku emulated look so frail. "Don't," he gasped, his other hand clutching his aching body. "Miroku, don't. Never. Never, hurt, Miroku."_

_It was the last thing he could say before he expired, his body unable to heal or keep the blood flowing with all of the bruises and cuts his body held. Miroku stared at it, at the body, and for a moment, he thought that he should never like to be so old. Dying like that, it was a waste of life. If the old monk had been younger, his body would have been able to heal the wounds, and he would have been able to do more, to help more. _

_And to watch them suffer when more children died because they had not heeded the old man's advice._

_The people left Miroku alone. He was just some apprentice, some novice, not a real monk, not yet. They didn't care what happened to him. Alone, Miroku picked up the body. Alone, Miroku prepared the body for death. Alone, Miroku buried the body, and alone, he forsook the oaths he had taken and instead swore that his master would not be alone as he went into the afterlife._

_No, there would be a whole village of souls going with him._

_---_

Miroku was so lost in his memories that he almost didn't see it until the page was turning. 'Jade'. 'Box'. He turned back to the correct page, and read what he had missed. Miroku could scarcely finish before he was standing up, feeling hungry in a way that made the desire for blood seem like nothing.

_The jade box is so old, it has almost been forgotten in history. Its roots develop from __Egypt__, where the sun was worshipped as a god and the heat is so great that it is like walking through fire. The jade box contains the first piece of a spell, which, when performed, it will fill vampires with the power of Ra, enabling them to walk in the sunlight and withstand heat as powerful as the surface of the sun._

Sunlight! The idea of walking in the sunlight filled Miroku with excitement. Sunlight; warmth; flowers; bird song, how long had it been since he had been able to feel grass on his skin as he listened to the day birds and felt himself be warmed not by alcohol or blood, but by _sunlight_?

He and Inuyasha could stand sunlight briefly, but not the direct sun. It was suicide to actually step outside during the daytime.

_There are three other artifacts which hold the other pieces of the puzzle: a statue of Ra, and a canopic jar said to hold the liver of a god._

Slamming the book shut, Miroku rushed downstairs to see what else his sanctuary held. He didn't care if he had to give up his business and fly to Egypt, fly into the rising sun, he'd do it all, so long as he was able to see the sun again.

Sunday, September 24th, noon

Sango rushed into the room as soon as she had heard the news. Saturday had passed by uneventfully. Her mother had never found out about Sango sneaking off, nor had she gotten caught on Saturday night when she went out and did her rounds of the city, making sure that her fellow human beings could sleep peacefully. But then on Sunday, she got a phone call from Kouga.

During their escapade out, Kagome had met up with Kuranosuke. Sango had thought that she would have been safe with Inuyasha. Kagome felt so assuredly about Inuyasha, that Sango had felt that if Kuranosuke had shown up, Inuyasha would be able to protect Kagome. Vampires were always so territorial! Besides, who would have thought that Kuranosuke actually would go after Kagome after she and Kouga had beaten him so badly at school? Shouldn't he have been at home resting?

It had been bad.

Kouga had made that clear over the phone. Bad enough so that his father had lifted his punishment and given him a ride to the hospital, where Kagome had been recovering. He didn't know exactly what the details were, but Kagome's mother had actually phoned up Kouga and asked him to come and stay with Kagome in the hospital while she had to work on Sunday, and in turn, Kouga had phoned Sango.

It wasn't that her mother didn't want to stay with her daughter. As it was, she had closed the shop on Saturday to stay with Kagome, but Mrs. Higurashi _needed_ to open the shop if she were to have enough money to pay for the hospitalization, or the house they lived in. Besides, she would be getting out of the hospital later on in the afternoon, so it was best that Kagome go home with her friends instead of being pampered over by her mother. Teenagers didn't like feeling like children, after all.

So Sango had told her mother, and was allowed to go and see her friend. What she found as she skidded around the corner, was not what she had been expecting. Kagome lay on the bed, wide awake and smiling as if nothing had ever happened. Her arm was in a sling, but no cast, so whatever happened, it had only been a sprain. She had a black eye, and there were little cuts all over her face and arms. Luckily, she hadn't lost any teeth, but her lip was still split, and two of her fingers on her left hand were broken. She moved her torso stiffly, and one of her legs was still. Sango could pick out the injuries as easily as she could if they had been pointed out to her. She had at least one cracked rib, and a sprained ankle. Sango didn't doubt that her legs were as bruised covered as her arms, but Kagome's legs were covered with the thin blankets of the hospital.

She turned to Sango when she entered. Her blue eyes were a little hazy, and Sango wondered just how many painkillers they had given her to allow her to sit up with a hurt rib cage. "Sango!" Kagome giggled loudly. "San-go. That's a pretty name. It's so musical." She shook her head, and for a brief moment she seemed to be able to concentrate more. "Hi, Sango. Don't look so worried. I'm really okay."

The beeping sound of her heart monitor filled the room, and Sango studied the two men sitting in the chairs beside Kagome, facing her. For a brief moment, it was funny. Both of them wore the exact same expression. Both of them were filled with the deep worry of a man who was losing someone he cared for greatly, the most important person in their life. It was the face that gave away who the other man was, the first of them being Kouga. The second man, the one with the unbound black hair and brown eyes that held Kagome's hand, was obviously Inuyasha.

Sango was surprised that he cared about her as deeply as she did him.

Was it all a trick?

Even more surprising was the fact that he was outside of his den in daylight, and that he looked horrible. He looked as if he hadn't slept in ages. When he looked up, hearing her enter, there was a flicker of fear in his eyes, worrying that Sango was going to fight him in front of Kagome, worry that she was going to start something. Instead, Sango looked away, and approached Kagome's bed cautiously.

"How are you doing?" she asked quietly.

Kagome smiled, her face as bright as ever, and her grip on Inuyasha's hand tightened. "I'm doing good. The people here are really nice, and it's great having my friends around me, although I'm afraid that I still haven't had time to get Friday's homework done." Her joke made everyone laugh nervously. It was a stereotypical Kagome thing to say.

Her other hand covered her mouth when she yawned. "I'm just really sleepy. But Mom already said I don't have to go to school tomorrow, so I have plenty of time to sleep then. Right now, I want to enjoy being with you guys. After all, I won't get to see you two at school tomorrow."

Kouga and Sango went bright red. "Ah," he said nervously, leaning further into the bed. "Ah, actually, Kagome, Sango and I were kind of expelled for the next two weeks. Same thing with Kuranosuke. Though if you come forward and tell people that he was the one who did this to you, I think that we can get him expelled permanently."

She looked at Sango and Kouga. "You two were the ones that beat him up?" She stared a moment longer and then giggled a little. She wiggled her hand out of Inuyasha's and sat up straighter in bed. Grabbing them, she dragged them forward and gave them the biggest hug she could at the same time. "You two are wonderful friends."

'Wow,' Sango thought. 'They _really_ must have given her a lot of drugs…'

Sitting back down, Sango thought a moment. "Kagome, Kuranosuke wasn't hurt, was he? He's just going to keep coming back after you. Next time, it will be worse." She saw Inuyasha nodding, agreeing with her, and she wondered why he would care. Sango _still_ couldn't believe that vampires could care for someone. They were soulless creatures. "I'm expelled, Kagome. But you know that I'm a fighter. I can show you how to fight so that he'll never hurt you."

Inuyasha agreed completely, but he felt the anger still boiling inside of him. He was angry at everything: angry at the best friend that sat beside him and thought he was Ranma from Japan visiting an old friend, to the Slayer he thought would attack him at any second, to the woman who had used a spell to keep an enemy from getting hurt. It was his fault that she was hurt, as far as he was concerned.

And then there was the matter of her attacker… Inuyasha was mad at him because Kuranosuke had hurt Kagome, but the vampire in him was furious because Kuranosuke was capable of accomplishing what he, a hardened killer, could not do. Kuranosuke was prepared to kill Kagome, and the immortal side of Inuyasha was jealous.

When an enemy threatened a mate or food or territory, there was only one logical response.

Kill your enemy.

His brown eyes flashed with gold as he lifted his head to look at Sango. He saw a brief moment of satisfaction on her face, as he had revealed to her the animal she knew was lurking somewhere. His voice was nearly a snarl. "Don't worry about Kuranosuke. He won't hurt her anymore. I can guarantee that. And I always keep my word, _Sango_."

"Good." Sango stood up, and they glared at each other over Kagome's hospital bed. "I always keep mine, dog-boy! I swear to you that if you hurt Kagome, I will kill you."

"Then why don't you do it right now, girl?" he snapped.

Sango very slowly sat back down. "That's none of your fucking business."

For some reason, after that, there was a lot more tension in the air.

-

As hard as Inuyasha had been thinking, he had come up with no way to get himself invited into the house. The red brick house sat on the corner, the rusted wheel of a bike spinning lazily, the flowers drooping, close to death. It was a sad looking house, but the light from the forty inch TV screen blatantly proved the house owners were not as unfortunate as they seemed. It was disgusting to Inuyasha.

It only meant one thing. The owner of the stench that Inuyasha had been tracking, his prey, the one Inuyasha _would_ kill, needed to come outside. For that, he needed Miroku to implant the thought into his prey's head. He turned to his older companion sitting in the tree across the pitted street, his gold eyes blazing. "Do it! Do it, will you!"

Miroku said nothing. This game was boring. He wanted to get in on the kill too, but Inuyasha had told him that he wasn't allowed to. Inuyasha refused to listen, refused to acknowledge anything that Miroku had discovered about the box or get more books from Kagome until he had fed. He crossed his arms and swung his legs over the large branch. "Maybe I changed my mind," he snapped.

Miroku then decided to change his mind again. The sounds of fighting caught his ear. He looked up in time to see the shadow of someone fly across the window. The yelling was not loud enough to be heard by human ears, but Miroku did not have human hearing.

"Where did you get this?" a male voice demanded. There was the sound of something heavy hitting a wall, followed by the sound of shattering glass. A younger, female voice screamed for someone to stop and to get out of their room. "How many times do we have to tell you? This is _not_ right! You're not allowed to have this type of stuff! Do you want to go to hell? Do you want to be covered in sins? Do you want to burn for the rest of your life?"

"No…" the softer voice said in the midst of sobs.

Inuyasha had heard it too. His ears stood at attention, and he looked anxious. He recognized the voice. It was the same voice that had yelled at Kagome that she was a witch, a bitch, a whore, a slut, as the owner of the deep voice beat her. Now Kuranosuke was beating someone else. He went to bolt to the tree that was across from the window to see what was going on, but Miroku beat him there. He cursed. "What do you see?" he demanded.

Miroku could see a very cute little girl, her frizzy hair hiding most of her face, but her freckles popping out against her pale skin, huddling at the foot of her bed. The man that Inuyasha had told him about stood over her, looking furious, both from the tightness of his muscles and jaw and because of the rolling aura. Miroku focused his eyes on the girl, looking deeper and deeper, and found a shimmer deep within her.

It was the same shimmer he saw when he looked at Kagome.

He looked down at his friend, his dark violet eyes pointed. "Your plan won't work," he said blatantly. "He's not alone, and I don't want to scare the girl he's with. But if we don't do something right now, then she's going to get beaten. I don't want to see that."

The compassion Miroku was showing made Inuyasha chortle. "You actually care about what happens to a little human girl, Miroku? Since when do you care about that? Or are you just starting to turn out like our maker and prefer younger prey now? It can be just like old times! I'll kill Kuranosuke, you can kill his sister, and then we'll wait for the parents to get home from work and take them too!" His eyes were hungry, his mouth salivating as he spoke, remembering fondly the way they had devoured whole families purely for amusement. He could almost hear the parents screaming as they drank their children dry in front of them…

"I want to teach her," Miroku growled. Is eyes narrowed further, and he leaned out of the tree to grab one of Inuyasha's ears and pull on it slightly. "You're an idiot! Kuranosuke's sister can do magic, like Kagome! Like me! I want to teach her. It's been centuries since I tried teaching someone. And if I really like her, if she's talented, I think I would like to make her like us." His expression softened slightly, looking longing. "I like it being you and I, Inuyasha, but don't you think it would be nice to have a girl with us? It can be like your sister, my daughter. We'll have a family again."

He thought for a long time, and then he began warming up to the idea. Inuyasha would like a family. Though every vampire was descended from Sesshomaru, the idea of a close family was intoxicating, and next to impossible. Many vampires tended to prefer being on their own, and if Inuyasha had not grown up with Miroku, he doubted that he ever would want a pack of his own. The longer he thought about it, the more interesting it seemed. "So, how do we get him out of the house so I can eat him and still leave her wanting to come with you so you can teach her?"

Miroku reflected on this question for a long time. "Do you have your cell phone on you? Good. Call up his house. Tell Kuranosuke you want to meet with him." Miroku grinned and shifted in the trees, sitting precariously on the balls of his feet as he leered at the house. "Then I'll take care of our little friend."


	11. The Nature of Predators

AN: Originally, I wanted to skip this chapter all together… and then I remembered how cool Inuyasha was. ::grin:: And how evil he's supposed to be. And how fucked up he's supposed to be. That's when I knew I had to write it! It's actually turning out more fun then I thought it would be. And I have no clue why Kikyo is going all CSI on me, but it was actually kind of fun to write. I made myself feel like Sarah Siddle. And if anyone out there really knows anything investigating crime scenes… don't mind my mistakes. I'm taking what I know from growing up watching 'CSI', 'Quincy' reruns, 'Diagnosis Murder' and 'Murder, She Wrote', okay? ::giggles::

Starzki: I hope you didn't have to stay up late for this one.

Aamalie: Meh. It probably works the same was as the US, but like I know these things. They were kicked out for two weeks. Suspended is right, expelled just sounds cooler. As for Rin, you hit the button on the nose. She did indeed have "something witchy" in her room. But you do bring up a point. I wonder if Miroku and Kohaku should meet at all. Poor Kohaku. He gets such a big entrance at the opening and then kind of fades into the background…

Blood Red Emerald: I know. He appears to be one, but he's kind of starting to suffer from multiple personalities or something… ::pokes Inuyasha::

Chadrific: You hear this story? You sound like my friend Wicks now. Miroku does want… well, you will see soon enough.

Lily Thorne: ::pets her plot twists:: Yes, they are good. Except that now I have discovered a small plot hole… damn. I need to fill that as quickly as possible.

Fireblade: Your wish is granted. Keep in mind that Inuyasha is crazy, okay?

Siren: You're not allowed falling down that stairs. It's against the rules. ::nods:: And we will suffer through sinus colds together!! ::puts on a brave pose:: They (I don't know why they is, but that's okay) recommend a vampire Miroku for colds! (Too bad he doesn't appear in this chapter.)

Demon: lol I have seen Interview many, many times. And while Lestat and Miroku have many things in common (like being sexy), there are some differences, ans you will see as Rin and Miroku interact.

Enjoy!

**Chapter Eleven: The Nature of Predators**

Sunday, September 24th, 10:46 pm

"Well?" the taller boy prompted as they stood out on the football fields at school. He was dressed like he was from some old movie about detectives, the flaps of his black trench coat flapping slightly in the nighttime breeze. He stared at the other boy, who hadn't turned around to see him. All he could see was the long black hair, the pale skin exposed from a blue t-shirt, and the blue jeans. He wondered how the other boy could still be warm.

The boy turned around, his brown eyes filled with so many conflicting emotions that for a moment Kuransouke was scared. This other male was obviously unpredictable. His voice sounded bored, but curious. "I can tell you how to hurt Kagome, how to take care of her so that she'll never other you again. She's a thorn in my side as well. But first, I want payment."

The human boy reached into one of the large pockets and withdrew a wad of cash. He threw it down on the wet grounds of the football field. "There's you're payment. Now, how can I get rid of that little fucker?"

Inuyasha's eyes flashed at the use of the foul language. He kicked the pile of cash back at Kuranosuke. His voice was a growl, and he had to hide his hands behind him when they tried turning into claws, ready to rip that tongue out of Kuranosuke's body. "I don't want your fucking money, you idiot. I want information. I give an answer to you, you give it to me. I want to know why you hate Kagome so much."

"Stop saying her name!" he roared. It surprised Inuyasha. Inuyasha also hated it when someone said Kagome's name, namely because when he heard it, he pictured her, and longed to be with her, longed to hold her in ways he never could. Why did Kuranosuke hate it so much? Did he also love Kagome? Was that why he hated her so much? Because he loved her and could never be with her the same way Inuyasha did?

"Fine," he snarled. Inuyasha walked a little closer to Kuranosuke, barking out his demands. He didn't like being kept waiting. It was going to rain again. His hair was a bitch to dry. "Tell me or I'll take the information by force."

"You first."

They glared at one another, and finally Inuyasha relaxed. He laughed, brushing aside his back bangs and standing up proudly. "Feh. Do you really think that you could hurt me?"

"Funny. That's just what I was thinking. Looks like we'll have to beat the information out of one another, doesn't it?" In an attempt to be threatening, Kuranosuke cracked his knuckles.

Inuyasha laughed out loud, a deep, and altogether rather frightening sound. When he opened his eyes, they were pure gold, and centered directly on Kuranosuke's neck. "I wasn't planning on throttling it out of you, boy." He walked closer still, the hair that now whipped around him slowly lightening until they looked like slim pieces of mirrored glass, reflecting what little moonlight there was. He felt his hands tickle slightly as his claws came out.

Kuranosuke began to back up. His brown eyes were impossibly wide, a look of pure terror as he tried to get away from the monster in front of him. He glanced around at his surroundings, trying to find a weapon. He was on the football field. There were no weapons, nothing to hide behind.

And when he looked around, he was filled with bravery. This was his turf. This was the football field! Hide? He would never hide! Weapon? He was the weapon! He held his place, allowing Inuyasha to get a little close to him before the vampire stopped again. Kuranosuke ignored the hungry gaze, ignored the way he could almost see Inuyasha's tongue lick his silver fangs. It was hard to tell with the overcast sky, but he thought that they were fangs.

The lightning flashed, and for a moment, Kuranosuke saw Inuyasha's true form. He didn't know what manner of beast stood in front of him, only that it was the same one Kagome had controlled a few nights ago. "I should have known that you were a witch as well when you were able to speak that whore's name!" Inuyasha refrained from leaping and ripping out his eyes, his tongue, of mauling Kuranosuke the way he was suddenly dreaming of doing. Watching him try and figure out what he was, that was too amusing.

"Not a witch then?" The thunder covered up the sound of Inuyasha snickering. He was no witch. "A demon then! A demon… that _she_ called up from the seventh layer of hell! What did she tell you? Did she tell you to kill me? Dog ears… wolf eyes… claws… you could be her familiar turned human to seek revenge for the lesson I taught her! Yes!" His voice was as twisted as his face and his false sense of security. "You're her _bitch_, aren't you?!"

He'd gone too far. He could call Kagome names and be toyed with before meeting death, try and belittle Inuyasha, and he would only have been roughed up a little. But no, absolutely no one, ever called Inuyasha a _bitch_.

One moment, Kuranosuke could clearly see the man standing in front of him, outlined by the brightness of his hair, or when his eyes briefly flashed from a turn of the head or the far off, flickering lights of the school parking lot. The next moment, lightning flashed and he suddenly saw Inuyasha above him, hurtling towards him with bared fang and unsheathed claw. The rain stated, soaking everything in seconds, and before the thunder reached Kuranosuke's ears, he felt weight falling on his chest and pushing him down.

He tried his best to fight. He fought hard, and fought dirty, kicking and punching whenever he got the chance, but as the lightning flashed again, he felt long claws dig into his scalp. His blood was unnoticed as it ran down his face with tears of pain and anger and the falling rain. All he felt was the hot breath of Inuyasha, the claws that made his head pull back and expose his neck, and heavy weight keeping him from breathing. When he heard Inuyasha's laughter, it covered up his whimper. The thunder covered up the sounds of his breaking bones as Inuyasha kept him from fighting permanently.

The next flash of lightning was invisible to Kuranosuke.

When he cried out in pain, begging for mercy, calling upon God to protect him, Inuyasha got more pissed off and stopped playing with his hands to make sure he could call for no help. Soon, he had no mouth to use to speak.

And then, finally, Inuyasha went in for the kill.

-

He was not as strong at telepathy as Miroku was. That was one of Miroku's special talents, but he was good enough at it to find what he sought for. It encompassed most of his mind, and went deeper than Inuyasha ever suspected. He should have gathered it was a deep rooted hatred earlier.

Like all memories of a dying person, it started at the end, and worked its way backwards.

He saw Kuranosuke strike a girl with freckles and frizzy hair, slamming her into the bed as he yelled at her. He didn't do it out of hatred. No, because God created women too. He did it to try and protect her. Magic was bad. It was the tool of the devil. He didn't want to see his sister burn in hell. Kagome used magic too. She was the reason why his sister had gotten into it, following in the footsteps of his mother. His mother, whom Kagome's mother had gotten to start doing magic. Magic had killed her. Magic would take Rin too, if she didn't realize how bad it was.

Kuranosuke hated Kagome for tearing apart his family in this life, but in the next one. She was a temptress, she was the seducer, she was a tool of the devil sent to destroy the good, old, well-off families of the town. He'd save her too, but he didn't know how. So he beat her, he teased her, threatened her, hoping that she would give up magic and burn down the hell-shop owned by her mother.

His last thought was an apology. He apologized to Kagome, hoping she could hear it. He had been wrong. She wasn't the tool of the devil sent to destroy her town.

The animal drinking his blood, his fangs buried to the hilt in his neck, ripping and shredding the muscle to try and get another drop of blood...

_He_ was the devil.

-

Monday, September 25th, 9:00 am

"Didn't you hear?" Kagura asked without turning around. "The school's closed for today. The police are going to inspect everything, bring in the dogs and go through the entire school." She sighed. "I don't know how to explain to Kanna that they went through her library."

"I heard it was murder." The voice sounded a little bored, and Kagura placed it immediately. She turned around and found Kikyo behind her. The tall, slender woman dug around in her purse and pulled out a black wallet. She dropped the purse on the ground, not really caring where she left it. Her brown eyes were determined as she looked out on the field, with the criss-crossing police tape and the men taking photos. "You don't have to be here, Kagura. I can take care of this."

The principal shook her head. "This is my fucking school. They're not going to crawl all over my school if I'm not here to watch them." She was glad when Kikyo walked out to the field. The woman was cold, but that calculating mind would keep the police on their toes.

Kikyo had gotten the call that the school was closed a second before she'd gotten the call from her superior. It was closed because of a human body found on the football field. This was the kind of thing she had been sent to the town to deal with. The government had noticed the amount of people who were coming into hospitals missing blood, who talked of voices in their minds and yellow eyes. So Kikyo had been sent in to investigate. She was sad to blow her cover as a school teacher so quickly, but so long as the police kept it to themselves…

A fat cop came up and tried to escort her away. It was a cold day, but he was pale and shaky, covered in sweat. It had to be bad. When she saw he was the man in charge, Kikyo simply flashed him her identification, told him not to tell anyone, and she was led to see the body. She stepped over a human finger lying amidst the dying dandelions.

"What are you saying killed him? It was Kuranosuke, right? The football star?"

The large cop nodded, and wiped at his sweaty brow. "Yeah. Listen, are you sure you really want to see this? He's… the body's pretty damn mauled. I can barely stand seeing this body, and I've seen a lot. You're a… a... you know!" He indicated her breasts.

She narrowed her eyes. If looks could kill, the chief knew that he would be deader than the body on the field. Her voice was a husky purr. "How kind of you to notice my gender. I can guarantee that I've seen worse than you. Now, the body. We can discuss gender roles when it comes to examining cadavers later on."

She had never seen a body so bad. The body lay on the green grass, bugs crawling out of the open mouth and flies trying to settle on the revealed intestines. His arms and legs lay at odd angles. Kikyo reached in her pocket and pulled out a tape recorder. "The subject's name is Kuranosuke, age eighteen. He's still wearing his running shoes, void of blood. His jeans have been torn, and reveal that his left fibula has suffered what appears to be a compound fracture. Both of his patellas have been broken. Once again, very little blood. He's missing his right pinky, and middle finger, and his left index one. There is some bruising around what remains of the abdomen. His shirt…"

Kikyo took a glance around saw the shirt being placed into a plastic evidence bag. The cop looked at her as if she were crazy, speaking in a calm and rational voice, and for that matter, identifying the body before most of the cops could. "His shirt is lying several feet away, shredded to pieces. It looks as if it was torn off his body and flung away. There is very little blood on it, so it was removed before the evisceration. In fact, given the shredding of the muscle, I'd even bet that the evisceration happened post-mortem. It was not done with a sharp object, and from the sheer size of the rip… well, I've never seen anything like this before. Note to self: get a pig and try and duplicate the amount of blood loss and bodily damage against the rainfall we had last night to see if it can account for the missing blood.

"Much of the muscles of the upper chest are missing, particularly around the neck area. Rather reminiscent of wolf attacks. This boy was assuredly mauled. There are claw marks on the pectorals, as if it was trying to get at the heart. Once again, very little blood. And…" She leaned closer, ignorant of the smell of defecation. "There is a silver hair trapped to some of the neck. Evidence bag, please!"

A greasy looking kid brought one over and handed it to her before he realized she wasn't on the police force. As Kikyo used the pen in her breast pocket to place the hair in the evidence bag, he asked the chief who she was. The chief said nothing. He felt like he was going to be ill.

'How can she get so _close_ to that… _thing_?' he wondered. He had is hand over his mouth, but even that wasn't blocking out the scent of feces and urine and of vomit. He was just glad it wasn't hot, otherwise there would have been some bloating of the fat inside the human body, distorting all the signs she was picking up on, and adding to the smell. He found it even harder to accept that she, a female and therefore the maternal human being, was treating the body as just a body. The chief couldn't believe that one of the boys he'd watched grow up had died so brutally.

Kikyo didn't even flinch when she zipped up the bag and started recording notes again. She waved away the flies in the mouth and peered inside. "He was further immobilized when both his arms were broken in the same fashion as his fibula. The victim was not only immobilized, but silenced as well." This the chief hadn't picked up on. He made a 'huh?' sound and moved a little closer. She tilted her head to peer at him through black hair coming loose from her ponytail. Kikyo tried to keep from sounding like she was talking to an imbecile. "He has no tongue. Has anybody found a tongue yet?"

The cop shook his head, still green and nervous. "Ah, no, I don't think so."

"Alright. Tongue has not yet been found. There appears to be some slight bruising on the cheekbones, once again, judging from the coloring and extent, they are pre-mortem bruises, just like the ones on his hips. The bruises are barely visible, covered up by scratches like those on the chest. Whatever did this to him has nasty claws. The scratched are all the way down to the bone. Some cranial damage, I'd have to move the body to check, but from the pattern of missing hair and claw marks on his head, it appears as though he might have been lifted or dragged by his head. At this point, I can't tell if this was done before or after death, but if he was moved it might explain why there is no blood on the ground around him. I'll also have to examine the neck area closer, as it has experienced the most trauma. Lastly, the subject has no eyes."

She turned the tape recorder off and sat back. She called the geeky boy over and got some gloves. "Has the body been sufficiently photographed?" she asked, pulling them on. Kikyo felt slightly satisfied when he man winced when the gloves snapped into place. The cop nodded. "Great. Then I can move him."

Kikyo paused and looked back at the sweating man. "Out of curiosity what's your theory about the missing pints of blood?"

"It did rain last night," the cop reminded her, feeling nervous. How could she quiz him when they'd only been at the school for two hours? They were still collecting evidence!

"Yes, but, look at his clothes! Look, his patella is sticking through his skin, but there's no blood. There's no blood on the jeans, no blood on his perfectly _white_ socks or shoes. I bet you if we rolled him over, we wouldn't have any blood under him either. I bet you if we doused this whole area with luminol, we wouldn't find any traces of blood either. That's a lot of blood missing, wouldn't you agree? Good. Now, what are you saying killed him?"

At this question, the cop laughed. "Isn't it obvious? Look at the damage he went through! The claw marks, the bite marks around the neck! It's obvious that it was an animal that did this. Maybe we have a wolf around. It's not common, but we do a get few wolf attacks now and again. We'll be talking to the National Park supers to see if they've had any restless wolf activities or…"

"Are you just using big words to make yourself sound impressive?" she demanded. Her brown eyes were furious, and the cop was afraid that she was going to hit him. "You think a _wolf_ did this?"

"Sure. A white wolf, since you found that white hair. It's possible. The wolf stood on him, the weight breaking the bones, as he attacked for the throat. He put his hands up to defend himself, which explains the broken arms and the missing fingers. The wolf managed to tear off the shirt and it was ripped away when he shook his head, the wind carrying it the rest of the way away. That's when the stomach was exposed, but the wolf left before it got a chance to finish the job."

"You _idiot_. The proof that it was a human is right in front of you. Look!" She stretched out her hand over the claw marks, and the fingernails fit perfectly into the hand strikes, though it was a bit stretched. "The claw marks come from human nails, albeit long ones. We're either looking for a woman with large hands or a male. Second, there's not much that can scare a wolf. The stomach _is_ bad, but wolves wouldn't have been so…artistic with it. The evisceration was for show.

"If it was wolves that had been tearing at his neck, the least amount of damage would have been on the edges of the neck wounds, where the wolves bit, and then, as the jaws closed, the damage would have increased and cause the muscles to shred. However, most of the damaged is too the left of the neck, meaning that whatever did this too him started at the left and worked its way to the right. Plus, it wasn't eating. There's too much muscle tissues left."

The cop looked clue less. She rolled her eyes. "It's like eating chicken. You tear pieces off. Human muscle would work the same way. This wasn't eating, this was done as somebody was trying to get a better grip. Secondly, the marks on his hips suggests he was straddled. Wolves can't straddle a human being. The way that the bones are broken would mean that if a wolf was standing on him and did happen to break his legs, Kuranosuke would have been on his back. There are no teeth marks around the breaks on the arms. They're clean. So are the ones on the fingers. They were snapped off, not bitten off.

"But, _sir_, you are ignoring your three greatest proofs that this was a man and not an animal, besides things that can only be proved using forensics. For one, I have never known of a wolf that can rip someone's tongue from out of their body, let alone their _eyes_. And lastly…"

She walked over to where she had seen the finger and picked it up. Kikyo calmly held it out for the cop to see what she had already noticed about Kuranosuke's fingers. "Even if all of that was a freak accident, I think that ripping off ten human fingernails is just slightly beyond the abilities of a wolf."

The cop looked ready to be ill again, and he quickly made a sign of the cross over his heart, staring blindly at the finger she held. "Jesus, Joseph and Mary…"

"No, sir, we're looking for a human being… I think that this investigation is now out of your jurisdiction, and I _will_ be taking it over."

That was when the greasy rookie cop made the best comment on the field that day. "You're wrong, m'am. If a man, if a man gone and done this, well, he ain't no human being, that's fer damn sure."

-

"Does the boy have any enemies?" Kikyo asked the cop as they walked down the hallways of the police station. She had to admit that the fat man was being more than kind, given that she had taken over the investigation. He didn't seem, to mind at all, and he had even been kind enough to give her a few trustworthy cops; those that wouldn't blow her cover as a teacher. As far as the public was concerned, she was the voice of the school, faculty, and students when Kagura could not attend discussions relating to the murder.

"Enemies? No. He's been caught a few times with manhandling, and everyone knows he's a bully, but certainly no _enemies_," the man answered. Then he remembered that he'd gotten that call from the dead boy's father, about how his son had been beaten, and he remembered the stories about a witch that had cursed him. "Well, there are three people I guess that you could call enemies of his. One's a new girl, Sango. There's the girl Kagome, that people say is a witch, believe it or not. Her mother's the sweetest person you'll ever meet, and her daughter is just as good, but most people in these parts don't like her. She's different, after all.

"That's what happens when you have impressionable young people around stubborn old ones. The kids want to be more like those from the city, with hip clothes and hot music and new-fangled technology, but when they meet someone different like that, their roots kick in and they ban them for something stupid, like being 'evil'. The other one, is name… well, everyone, calls him Kouga, but is real name is Xander Courier."

He stopped and pointed at a set of swinging doors. "The examination room is through there. Listen, I hate to sound or like I'm in a hurry, but his father has been phoning me constantly. He wants to know when he can come pick up the body."

"Tell him he can come up tomorrow morning. I'll be done by then." She paused, and turned around, fixing the white robe she wore. "Chief? You've mentioned Kuranosuke's father many times. Who exactly is he that makes everyone so… nervous?" She didn't want to insult them by saying they were all afraid of the man.

The cop rose an eyebrow, and reminded himself that Kikyo was new to the city. "He owns half the town. He's big. He has a temper. And… let's just say that when his temper explodes, the fact that he has three lawyers stuffed in his wallet means that he can pretty much do whatever he wants and not get penalized. I feel sorry for the poor guy, though. You know, his daughter's missing too. None of her things are missing, so she didn't run away, no sign of forced entry, she just… seems to have disappeared into thin air. Funny thing is though, he's making a big deal about Kuranosuke rather then little Rin."

He shifted in his shoes, uncomfortable. For a little while he had thought that maybe Kikyo was only calm and cold when she was at work with a body, to keep from becoming ill or emotional. But, even now the look in her brown eyes was enough for him to want to crawl under a desk and hide. She seemed almost inhuman. "Would you mind if I asked you something?"

She smiled briefly, and the large man let out his captured breath. "Of course not. Ask away, sir."

"This attack… you knew exactly what you were doing. I don't know much about the department you're from… have you seen a lot of attacks like this?"

Kikyo nodded. Her eyes seemed once again dead. "Yes… I have."

To Be Continued


	12. By the Pricking of my Thumbs

AN: …This is quickly coming to be the darkest story I have ever written. Oh well. I had to do it sometime.

BluePuppy: If you see me anywhere around you, then yes, you have. If I'm not there with you… you have a little bit of sanity left.

Fireblade: Hopefully there will be more MS soon, I promise. And eventually Kikyo's secrets will all be out. (But all those who think she works for the FBI… guess again. Close, but not cigar!)

Starzki: The evisceration was only done to try and make it look like an animal had done it. - Inuyasha's mad… but he does things for a reason.

Aamalie: Rin is very sweet. And don't worry. Because she's so cute, Rin is sacrosanct in this story. No harm will ever come to her, so you don't have to be worried. (Be afraid that Naraku makes two cameo appearances though! ::cue evil laughter::)

DarkSlayerAngel: I must admit.., there was some cheers of that from me too when I was writing the story. I like making Inuyasha crazy…

Lily Thorne: They should scare you. They scare me. What's even more scarier… if you go back and think about the characters are really get a _feel_ for them… the plot twists _make sense_!

Demon Exterminator Barbie: Oh yeah. A lot of CSI. If I had cable, I'd totally be in front of my tv with a drink and a bag of nachos (or something) watching CSI. And I don't want Lestat. Besides the fact that my roommate has claimed him, we're both too crazy. I want someone like Louis. I love Louis. But you can still have him. I'll take Ash instead… even if I have to fight every other LJS fan out there.

On second thought, I'll keep Akira… (Just kidding if you read this, hon!)

Siren: If it's at all possible… can you find a way to send me said pics or tell me where you found them? _Please_? And I want to see Ginger Snaps II. I saw Ginger Snaps and I quite liked it. Not too many movies made about werewolves these days, which is sad. They should get more attention.

Ninalee-chan: I have a great _past_ for her, but she's more of a tertiary female character… (Sango beign the first, Kagome second, and Rin and Kikyo tied for third.) But I guarantee that for while she's around, she will kick some major ass! (I don't know what happens to her right now… but she's still kicking ass in chapter eighteen so… ::shrugs::)) And it was very nice of you to send out the DVD's. As for co-worker "L": if you mean to ask if there's a basis in my past that I gave to Miroku to make his past come alive… no. For the actually character in Rumiko Takahashi's works… maybe. Other than that, it was probably the creation of to much work and not enough sleep.

Enjoy, everyone! And in case I don't get to update again, Merry Christmas!

Chapter Twelve: By the Pricking of My Thumb

Monday, September 25th, 10 am

_The heat from the fire was intense. Even far away, Miroku could feel the heat make his skin sweat. He could hear people screaming, calling and begging for help from people both real and religious, the cries of animals trapped in farms and the sounds of timbers creaking._

_"Burn," he said quietly, half ashamed and half pleased with his work. His voice was steady and quiet. "Burn in hell."_

_He heard the sounds of someone coming up behind him, but Miroku didn't care. If it was someone that had survived the flaming village and knew he was the one who had started the fire, then they could kill Miroku, and he wouldn't fight them. If it was his time, he wanted to go filled with usefulness and warmed with flames. _

_It was indeed someone from the village, but it wasn't someone who wanted to kill him. At least, not in the way Miroku thought of death. "You set the village on fire," he said in a deep voice. It was odd, but Miroku could have sworn that it was royalty talking to him, given the sense of pride he heard in the voice. _

_He turned around just to see who it was, to see if it was royalty or not. He found a tall man, impossibly tall, looking down at him. Long white bangs framed his face, and clung to his long lashes. His gold eyes went from Miroku's head to his toes, and then back up. His sculpted mouth slowly began to smile. "A _monk_ set the village on fire? How… amusing. I always did love a sense of… irony, and watching a good man fall to become…" Unable to find the correct word, he simply chuckled, a malicious sound that made Miroku become terrified. "Why did you set the village on fire?"_

_Though he was an adult, Miroku childishly sniffled. He felt so young when he was around this strange man. "They killed my master." He sadly shook his head, and forced his gaze away from the man with the golden eyes. "They killed him, and he was trying to help them. He did nothing wrong. They shouldn't have taken him from me. So, I killed them."_

_"Ah," the tall man said, "revenge."_

_"No. Not revenge. Revenge is illogical. This was justice. My master was a good man, and an excellent monk. He didn't deserve to die, not by vermin like them." His face was hard as he stared at the village, hating the people screaming for help. Begging was pathetic. His master didn't beg for life when he was dying. No, he tried to protect them, even when he was dying. "Vermin."_

_"How did you feel when he died? Did you start to feel like it was all pointless? Why we were living, when our fellow human beings would simply kill us? Do you strongly believe that the… that the good deserved to live, and the bad… to die?" He spoke slowly, carefully. "Do you wish that you could decide who lives and who dies instead of some powerful being?"_

_Miroku was astonished. Yes. That was exactly what he thought. How did the man know? That thought had been constantly reappearing his head. An immortal being judging people? He was too far away, too distant, and he never _did_ anything. But a human? A mere human, judging his peers? That was justice!_

_"I am old, monk. I have seen many people who thought as you did. It is a human emotion, this jealousy and anger you feel at death. I find it… intriguing, for I have never felt such emotion. I can give you that opportunity, an opportunity to try the people of this world and drink the blood of the damned, trying to make the world a better place by removing such vermin from her surface. More than that, you will be almost indestructible. When you die, you will still look as you did now. You will never grow old. You will never become senile and weak. And more so, you can live long, as long as you obey the rules. You must worship the night, never to see the sun, and you must never tell anyone about us unless you mean to make them your… child. Those are the only two rules."_

_Never see the sun again? Never feel that warmth, never to see flowers in bloom, or the songs of the day birds bless your ears as you walked?_

_'No. Never to be blinded as you face the west. Never to have your skin blister, and peel from exposure to the sun. Never to be bothered by wasps in the flowers.'_

_He hesitated, and the tall man knew just what to say to convince him the rest of the way. "You will be immortal, monk. Imagine how much time you will have for philosophy, for learning. You could learn _real_ magic, monk. You can watch the world grow and new science and thoughts develop and you could master them all. There is much knowledge in this world, and you will be able to sample every bit of it."_

_Miroku then made his decision. _

_He went with the tall man._

-

Coughing woke Miroku from his sleep. He opened his eyes and found a slender, short girl with her hair unbound from tight braids staring at him. Her hands played with the long shirt she wore, toying with the buttons and looking nervous. She was staring down at the floor.

"Inuyasha snores."

Miroku stared at her a second, unnerved by the lack of fear in her eyes when she raised them. No, she looked… looked like she trusted him completely. Had Miroku ever been trusted like that before? He was over eight centuries old. It was about time he had a protégé.

"I see," he said, sitting up slightly in bed. She didn't even blink at the actions, her gaze keeping locked on his violet-grey eyes. Rin was only fifteen. Compared to his age, it was nothing, yet most women he had met around that age would have at least glanced a look at the smooth muscles of his chest or arms. Rin didn't. She… was different. Was it the fact that she could do magic that made her different, the same way Kagome stood out to Inuyasha? Or was it simply that he had promised to teach her more magic? "You wanted to come in here and sleep, didn't you?"

She nodded her head vigorously. There was a little blush on her cheek as she did up the button at her collar. It reminded Miroku that even tough she wasn't afraid of him, she was precautious, knowing full well what he was. She was a smart girl.

"Come on in, then." He threw back the marshmallow-like covers of the bed. "Quickly, Rin. You're letting all the heat out."

Rin raced to the bed and jumped in, bouncing on the mattress a little before she pulled the covers up over her shoulder, laying on her side. Miroku stared down at her a second before he settled back down on the mattress. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her against his chest. She sighed, and nestled in closer, her tiny hands clinging together as they pressed over his unbeating heart.

"Sir Miroku?" she asked cautiously, her voice wavering. "You're not going to try and bite me, are you?"

He raised his hand and stroked her hair. "No, Pet. I'm not going to try and bite you. I want to teach you, not eat you." Hearing the truth in his voice, she sighed again and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep as Miroku was left wondering: why? Why didn't he want to bite her? She was so cute, so precious. Normally, he would have gobbled her up in a second, like the wolf and Red Riding Hood.

For being short, her legs were long and slender. Her body was lean and toned from working out, though he wasn't sure what. With her build, maybe swimming, or running, or even gymnastics. Her hair only came down an inch or two past her shoulders, and there was a tight, natural weave to it that made him enjoy calling it 'frizzy'. It was no wonder why she usually wore it in braids, either in a French one, or in a long one, or two little ones that framed her adolescent face. Her lips were pale and soft, and she slept with her lips slightly parted, the ears of a vampire able to pick up on the slight sound of whistling as the air rushed between the tiny gap between her two front teeth.

Her arms were as slender as her legs, her hands graceful. There wasn't a spot of dirt under her long fingernails, showing him that she was meticulous. Looking down at the hands wound over his chest, he wanted to by her a ring. A woman's ring, something as graceful as she was turning out to be. He wanted to dote upon her.

The dress shirt she was wearing as a nightgown hid the curves of her body, but Miroku could pick them out. He'd had over eight centuries of practicing, after all. She was just hitting puberty. Her hips had no definition yet, her breasts just starting to form. She would be beautiful when she was finished, stunning. With her petite size and artistic mannerisms, she would look like a pixie turned human-size. Miroku had always agreed that the last flower to bloom would smell the sweetest.

Inuyasha had simply called her 'disgustingly cute' when he met her. She had been too happy to hear him, busy playing with his soft ears, heedless of the skin under his nails or the blood and cuts on his face.

No, he didn't want to bite her. At least, not in the way that she meant. He wanted to change her, yes. Oh, how he wanted to change her! He wanted to do it now, preserve her in this perfect form, but that would be mean. How would he like it if he had been transformed before he had become a man? Eight hundred years old and never an adult? No, he had to wait, and when she was that adult, human-sized pixie, he would give her his blood, make them one.

She would be his daughter.

It was beautiful. What a family they would make! The tall, golden eyed Sesshomaru as the head of the family, Miroku, the elder brother that was wise and smart, Inuyasha the defender of the family, and sweet little Rin whom they could teach everything they knew, make her like her father and her uncle. She would have his power, and Inuyasha's strength. They would prove to Sesshomaru that vampires could indeed become stronger each generation, not weaker!

"Sweet little Rin," he purred, stroking her hair. "My Rin."

-

Monday, September 25th, 1:25 pm.

"Rin's missing!" At that same moment, Kohaku pounced on his sister. Her guards down as she was in the safety of her own home, and not seeing her brother as a threat, she was knocked flat on her stomach by him. His hands gripped her shoulder, and that was an expression of honest worry on her face. "Rin's missing!"

"How do you know this for sure?" Sango asked, rubbing her head grumpily. She rolled over and pushed him off, finding it tempting not to give him a kick for good measure. She didn't like being pounced. She felt bad when she saw her brother's face. He really was concerned about Kuranosuke's little sister, wasn't he? It was… kind of sweet. Her little brother had a crush on a cute little girl!

Kohaku blushed and traced the patterns in the carpet. "I… Well, we kind of agreed to meet at the shop for lunch. You know, that cute little diner by the school? And even though school's off for the day, I thought that we'd still be meeting. I waited for an hour, and she never came! So I thought I would phone her. I mean, maybe she came down sick or something! Or maybe even her brother…"

He clearly wasn't about to continue, but Sango glared and grabbed his shoulder, prompting him. "What about her brother?"

They stared at each other a moment, before he realized that his sister had assumed too much. He shook his head, a very small smile hiding in his eyes as he once again approved of his sister's protective nature. Though she often said she hated children, he knew that it was the bear-like maternal streak in her that made her worry and defend so easily. His sister was a knight in shining armor to him, now that he was old enough to not complain about being saved by 'a girl'.

"Oh no, Sango, nothing like that. He's just… he can be a dick sometimes, and won't let her leave the house because he says it's dangerous."

She was shocked for a moment, and then laughed a little. "Hard to believe that Kuranosuke and I might actually agree on something!"

Kohaku smiled brightly in return. He stopped playing with the carpet and poked Sango's arm. "Hey, you're smiling. I knew that Mom was right when she sent us here. I mean, you have friends, and I like them, though that Kouga's a little…"

"Eh, he takes a little while to get used to, but you'll like him eventually. His eccentricity is… endearing, not to mention amusing." She sighed and brushed her hair out of her way, getting comfortable on the hallway carpet. "So, you're worried about Rin? She might have just forgotten. Or maybe she decided to… no offense, but decided to ditch you and take off to enjoy the beach or something. It's a bit damp outside, but it'll be one the last warm days of the year, and we don't have any school."

"Maybe… but that doesn't seem like her. I've only known her a week, but…"

She poked her brother the same way he had her. "You _like_ her. You don't think she could do anything bad because you _like_ her. You have a _crush_. You want to _kiss_ her." She laughed, almost sounding giddy, when he blushed and tried to get away. Sango pounced her little brother, tickling him, making him burst out laughing. "Admit it! Come on! Don't make me start singing the song! Rin and Kohaku, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"All right! All right! I admit it! I have a crush on her!" he cried out between fits of laughter. Sango stopped tickling him, and he dried his cheeks as he looked up at her, slapping the hair falling over her shoulder gently out of his face. "Yeesh! Why do you care so much?"

She looked a little hurt, her face softening. Why wouldn't she care that he had found a girl he liked? Sango had no problem with Rin, just with Rin's big brother. Had she become so focused on killing vampires, on trying to make the world safe, that she had alienated her family? Oh, what was she thinking? Of course she had! That was part of why they had moved out to the tiny town in the first place!

Sango lowered her head and kissed her brother's forehead tenderly. She could feel the bond between them that had weakened over the past few days growing stronger again. "I just want to see my little brother happy, and safe. So if that means you marry Rin, or if it means you live with a stripper named Blondie Bottom or something, then I will be glad that you're happy and not say anything."

Her brother laughed and crawled out from underneath her, leaning on the wall of the hallway. "What about you, Sango? What would make you happy?" Sango knew what would make her happiest the most, but she wasn't about to say anything about killing vampires. Her brother's face reminded her of the Cheshire Cat, and she was suddenly filled with dread. "I think that you would be happiest with someone who challenged you, who brought passion in your life. Like that guy you were dancing with on the weekend. I mean, there was so much… _fire_ between you… hey! Where are you going?"

Reminded of Miroku, Sango had immediately stood up and walked briskly down the hallway with a tense form. "I'm going to go punch something!"

-

The dogs sniffed at the lockers briefly, their ears flickering at the scents of unwashed gym socks, but not finding any sign of drugs, they pressed on. The men followed behind the dog team, using the school records of lock combinations to look into the lockers, riffling through forgotten sandwiches and papers, using the metal cutters whenever they failed to open some of the lockers.

Kagura watched over it all, feeling ashamed. They didn't have any reason for going through all these lockers. Not a logical one anyway, just a bunch of circumstantial evidence. Yes, many of the students did hate Kuransuke, but would they ever beat him to such an extent just for being a sexist bully? No. Evisceration, dismemberment, beating, torture? No! She had better students than that. But they had found out about him being disliked, and so they were searching for the weapon that could have cut out Kuranosuke's intestines, even though Kikyo had already assured the police it was no weapon that had made those marks. They wanted to be doubly sure, so they were checking lockers.

And they figured: why not bring in the illegal-substance-sniffing dogs, too? They were going through all the lockers anyway, so they might as well sniff out all the pot users too.

She especially worried about Sango, Miroku, and Kagome. Kagome would have a hard time convincing people she had no involvement in this. Kagura knew full well the types of things her students thought of her. But certainly the judicial system wouldn't be stupid enough to believe Kagome had brainwashed somebody into killing Kuranosuke! Kouga was a good kid. She hoped all the pot was out of his locker. He didn't need any other trouble on his plate, thanks to the females he had balancing at either end. And then there was Sango. She was new, which to many meant that she was expendable, and she was different, which meant that she was as dangerous as her Wiccan friend. More so, she had a history filled with aggression, and she already had been suspended for fighting, with a possibility of legal trouble from Kuranosuke's parents.

If they found something in her locker…

Her ruby eyes flickered to the cop as he made a whistling sound. They glanced at the locker beside the open one the officer was examining, and she cursed. It was as she had feared. It was Sango's locker. She drifted closer, trying to listen in on the conversation between the rookie cop and the officer he had called over.

"Don't you think it's odd?" the rookie cop asked, holding something up for examination.

The other cop scoffed, and Kagura felt instantly relieved. It the older cop was making fun of whatever the other officer had found then it obviously wasn't very important! It looked as if one of her two newest pupils were safe. She sauntered over a bit further, searching through some of her papers on her clipboard.

"There's probably a logical explanation for it!" the cop said. Kagura was shocked. Maybe it was Kikyo's presence that was infecting the police force with a dose of reality. "It's probably nothing. Maybe it's a prop for a drama presentation or Transylvanian lore for English class after reading Dracula. This is a _school_ after all. I would be more concerned about the Holy water in a public school."

'Holy water…' Kagura wondered, 'in a public school?' Though confused, for a brief moment she hoped that the people she had always been defending, the underdogs, were about to go unnoticed as being the best scapegoats for the horrendous crime her school had witnessed. Then some other cop came up and asked her why she had not disclosed to them that two of her students had been suspended for beating up Kuranosuke.

-

Monday, September 25th, 9:42 pm

"Can I come too?" Rin eagerly asked, balling her hands and trying hard not to bounce up and down. Miroku laughed and brushed her hair gently, telling her that she needed to stay home, and that she should try reading until they got back, as Inuyasha looked on, still standing tall with the pride of being the dominant predator and the accomplished killer.

"We'll be back soon. Do you want me to bring you something back? I know Inuyasha was kind enough to bring back a bit of human food last night, but do you need anything else?" Rin pursed her lips, tapping them as she thought. The dark-haired man smiled at her. "Rin, how many times do I have to tell you? Inuyasha and I are your family now. You don't have to be ashamed to ask for anything."

"Peanut butter, strawberry jam, and some bread," she said, looking a little shy after her cute act had been dropped. "Plus, maybe some ice cream too, for desert? And if you two are going to go out every night, then I suppose that's good, but I don't want you two shopping for me every night. I can make up a list tonight and then you can just go out once and get enough for two weeks or so. I don't need that much. But I still don't see why I can't go out myself. It's not ten yet, and I have my own money, and…"

That was the flaw with Miroku's plan. She was too independent, and too used to her human world. She wanted to learn magic—oh, how she wanted to learn magic—but she was also accustomed to hanging out with her friends, with going to school, with going out and getting things she needed.

As Inuyasha pointed out after they had left: "What are we going to do when she needs new clothes? How is she going to get an education besides what the two of us know? I know we know a lot, but she could learn so much more by going to University!" His face fell. "Look, I know that what you're doing with her, I know that's how things started for me. You taught me a lot, Miroku, it's not your fault I couldn't remember any of it. I just… I wouldn't change any of it, but she deserves something better. She's like… Kagome." The name was gentle, barely creating any breath at all. The weight of it wasn't even enough to hurt a butterfly.

Miroku thought about it, the thought dominating on his mind as he hunted. When he returned home, he found Rin laying on the carpet, reading one of his large books. He took off his leather jacket and threw it on the back of a chair before he sat down next to her. Once again, minus a hello, she had barely paid him any attention. She didn't watch him, and she didn't edge away from him when he got within distance of her to reach out and hold her still as he bit her if he so wanted.

"Inuyasha and I were talking," he said quietly. Her legs kicked in the air and she flipped the page, sitting up when she found a spell she wanted to try. Her small fingers traced the words in the book. "He's right. You probably shouldn't be staying here with us."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "But I like it here. I like you and Inuyasha. I want to learn everything you can teach me." Rin glanced at the book before she thought of something else. "It's not because I'm human, is it? If you're worried about you or Inuyasha attacking me or something, I can defend myself! I already know how to light stuff on fire. That was pretty easy to learn."

"It kind of has a _bit_ to do with you being human. See, you need human friends, a human family. Oh, you can call Inuyasha and I family too, it's just that if you stared here with us, we could never let you leave this apartment. You'd never be able to see your friends or family, or go to the mall, the beach, or even grocery shopping because we'd be worried someone would notice you and take you away from us."

"But what about teaching me magic?"

Miroku smiled at her kindly and stroked her hair as she went back to reading the book, tracing pictures in her hand. "Oh, we can still teach you that. Why don't you come here for an hour or two after school every night? I promise I'll be awake, and this way, it can be our little secret. We can keep as much junk food as you like stocked here for when you show up, and you can get to never tell anyone where you're going, like you're James Bond… only a cute female James Bond."

She snapped her fingers, and a shard of ice grew in her hair, taking on the picture she had traced in her hand. She handed Miroku the small crystal heart, and he took it carefully. "Don't worry if you break it. It's starting to melt already. It sounds… good. But I liked your first offer better. I don't want to go back home. Kuranosuke…."

"He won't bother you, Pet. I promise he won't." Her cheeks began to blush, and he could tell that she was thinking of another man. Miroku rose an eyebrow, and starting trying to pick out where she might be ticklish. "Who is it? Who are you thinking about now?"

"Just a boy…"

She didn't say anything else, and Miroku leaned closer. "Is he cute, this boy who can make you blush so hard all those cute little freckles disappear?" She nodded, her hair bouncing at the movement. "Do you think he likes you back?" Again she nodded. "So, what's his name? Come on! Curious minds want to know!" Rin was silent again, so Miroku shrugged. "Well, I guess that if you don't want to tell us, we can't go and find him, and bring him back and make him ask you out on a date or anything. And if he hurts you, it means that Inuyasha and I…"

"Kohaku would never hurt me."

The name was said quietly, but Miroku could still hear it. His mind froze. Pet liked Sango's twin? Oh, what a complication! He rolled his eyes, and was about to slink off and try and figure out what this all meant, and how to maybe use Rin to get to Kohaku, when he saw the jade box lying in pieces on the floor. He looked from the box, to Rin. His voice was stern, a tone that Rin had never heard him use before, and it startled her for a second.

"Rin… what did you do to the jade box?"

"What? Oh. I'm sorry. Did you want to do the puzzle yourself?" His shock was obvious, and she looked concerned. The jade box? A puzzle?! "You didn't know? It's an ancient puzzle. We learned about them in history class, and we actually got to do some like these in math class. See? This piece goes here, and this goes here, and when you put all the pieces together, you get a box again! But this one was kind of odd. Someone did it before and lost something in it or something. See?" She held out a piece of papyrus paper that had Latin written on it in very careful, small letters. "It was stuck in one of the locks. Well, actually, I should say that it looks more like one of the locks was hollow, and this was placed inside of it. Do you know what it says?"

"It's a very old spell," he said quietly.

Her brown eyes become suddenly intense. "Cool! But what's a Roman spell doing inside an Egyptian box?"

"The Romans conquered Egypt," he said, still thinking about the paper he held. He barely noticed Rin make and 'oh' face and nod understandingly.

"Right. Anthony, Cleopatra, and all that jazz. So, can I help with this spell?"

Miroku exhaled quickly. "You might be able to help us yet." He needed to see the rest of the pieces of the spell before he found out, but as it looked, Rin could very well help with the spell. Because so far, one of the recipe ingredients was the blood of a witch.

-To be Continued

(Just kidding about Merry Christmas… but I bet you I had some of you worried, ne? …O.O I need sleep….)


	13. Something Wicked this way Comes

AN: This chapter was going to take me a while to get out, but I decided to break the chapter I'm currently writing into two parts to avoid having a stupidly long chapter. (I mean stupidly long as in about 20 pages… 15 is generally my limit. Which is what this one is!)

BluPuppy: I'm a hopeless romantic too. ::grins:: Let me put it this way: go watch 'Romancing the Stone'. My friends have a bet like I'm going to turn out like Joan Wilder. Personally, I think she's awesome, so I hope that they are right! And I haven't seen 'Queen of the Damned', or read it. I will work on one of them though, so I can see this crazy Lestat. Maybe it will inspire me a little more.

Furi and Fireblade: Rin is disgustingly cute. Come on. She's Rin. What else could she be?

Siren: You picked up on two of the same things that Aamalie did. Yes, I mean Kouga, and I rather like that line myself, as it reminds me of me. Though I prefer kicking things. I'm a kicker. And you bring up a good suggestion: Kouga as a werewolf… it would work too. I mean, he's a wolf demon in the series…. This requires more thought.

Starzki: You're in luck! This chapter has Scary!Softie!Miroku with Sango! (Poor Sango!)

Aamalie: Actually, I gave him a very unlikely role just for shits and giggles. - And wow. People just kind of… fell into the plot twist… ::laughs insanely:: I do so love when things work out _beautifully_… I need to stop being so evil.

Lily Thorne: It's supposed to go with this chapter title. 'By the pricking of my thumbs/something wicked this way comes.' It's Shakespeare… I just can't recall what play it's from! Either Hamlet or MacBeth…

Queenizzay: I'm not a genius. I just have crazy flashes of brilliance after sugar and lack of sleep. And a very twisted muse.

Ninalee-chan: I figured that if that was what would make me become a vampire, people would probably be the same way. But I love Sesshy. He's evil and sexy and he's quite manipulative too… but Miroku wins hands down. The darker hair is cool, I love how he's always in such a good mood, and he has a sensitive side which Sesshy doesn't. I to, don't really understand the "bad boy" thing… wait. Well, no, I do, but it has too be coupled with something else attractive. Like wit. Or intelligence. Protectiveness. And… erm… actually, the relationships kind of start to take off from here, so sadly,… the Jade box gets a little neglected until about chapter nineteen.

Chadrific: I know. Normally I write Shippo into my fics because he's just so cute and stuff. For awhile I had played with the idea of making him Sesshy's protégée and be like Claudia from _Interview with the Vampire_ and then it struck me: I couldn't do that to sweet little Shippo!

Enjoy, everyone! ::remembers who is in this chapter and passes out drool buckets for those who need them::

**Chapter Thirteen: Something Wicked This Way Comes**

Tuesday, September 26th, 12:01 pm

Things took time.

The world was created in seven days.

It rained for forty days.

Nine months to birth a child.

Eighteen years to raise it.

Time clicked, capturing everyone waiting for the final clock to strike. Miroku and Inuyasha slept, waiting for the dawn of night; Sango sat, waiting for her time to stalk; Kagome hobbled, waiting for her wounds to heal; Kohaku worried, waiting for Rin to speak; the police waited for the warrants to be cleared, and Kikyo waited for DNA results, and Rin simply waited, holding her breath and furious that some part of her longed for asphyxiation.

She allowed a gentle blush to rise to her cheeks as she sat at the lunch table across from Kohaku, everyone staying far away from them. People were afraid to speak to Rin, afraid of the way she seemed so pale, or maybe of the way the whole school itself seemed about to break into a fit of fear and tears. Nobody knew who had done it, nobody knew what had been done, but everyone knew it had been gruesome.

But Rin knew. Miroku had said that Inuyasha had taken care of Kuranosuke so that she would never have to worry about him again. This was what he had been talking about. Inuyasha had killed Kuranosuke for her, so that he would never hurt her again, never find out she was learning magic and go after the people who were teaching her.

Inuyasha had killed Kuranosuke for _her_.

She batted her lashes as she poked at the green jelly on her plate, looking at Kohaku through her lashes. He looked like crap. Had he gotten any sleep at all? She hadn't gotten any sleep. She kept on having nightmares of what Inuyasha might have done to her brother.

She needed to say something, she needed to do something to keep Kohaku from worrying about her, but she couldn't say anything. Her mouth didn't want to work. She was terrified that she might say the wrong name, might call out Inuyasha's name as she wondered why such a nice man would kill her brother, or worse. What if she told him about it all accidentally? She couldn't burden Kohaku's sweet nature with such a horrible thought, and if he didn't believe her, then he would think she was insane!

Rin knew she needed help. She needed a lot of help, wise, older help.

'Miroku… no! Not Miroku!' She dropped her fork and slammed her hands on the table as she stood up. She felt the eyes of the whole school on her as she struggled to get up out of the table seat, the freckled boy across from her bolting up to help her.

Climbing out of her seat, she strode across the floor, whispers and sounds of awe following her as all heads turned to watch the color rise to her face once more, her mouth set in a straight line and her eyes filled with such a hard look of determination people were afraid of her. Her footsteps sounded like gunshots in the hallway; the people from the lunchroom quietly fought each other to follow her. Kohaku fought through them all and appeared at her side, there to be with her no matter what happened. The smile she flashed him when she found her hand suddenly encircled by his was enough to make Kohaku forget that he'd ever had a moment of doubt about her liking him.

She paused at each intersection of hallway, just long enough to get her bearings, and never long enough for the other people to catch up. It was just her and Kohaku, and soon, they found themselves at the door marked 'Library'.

Pushing open the door, Rin said nothing to Kanna, she merely looked around and then headed to the one closed door. The librarian hurried to the library door and shut it before she silently rushed to try and keep Rin from disturbing the door. It didn't work. The library doors burst open again as the fighting mob tried to enter as one huge entity.

Turning the knob, Rin found it looked. She puzzled over it a second and then waved her hand over the door, hearing it unlock. Rin had always loved puzzles, and opening locks was the first magic she had learned, using it to sneak into her brother's room and steal his underwear so she could put it all in the freezer when she was only seven years old.

'Kuranosuke….' She opened the door. She hoped she would be forgiven.

The blue-eyed girl stopped picking at her food, longing for something other than food, and she looked up to see Rin and Kohaku. Her face warmed for a second before she heard and began to see the mass of students trying to squeeze through the blocked doorway. Her look turned to one of utter fear as she realized there was a mob before her with two people she thought as secret friends at its head, and she had no way out.

Rin puffed out her chest, inhaling deeply. When she gathered enough oxygen, she whirled on the crowd. "All of you shut up and stop moving!!" she screeched as loudly as she could. The crowd, shocked, stopped. Rin turned back to Kagome and quietly approached the girl, who tried to stand.

Holding up her hand, she shook her head, her braids waving slightly. "No," she said gently, her face beginning to crumble from the strength she had shown before. "Don't get up. It's… I mean, you're injured. It wouldn't be right for you to try and stand."

Kagome's face refused to return to the normal, happy smile Rin had seen when she was visiting Sango and Kohaku. She weakly tried to smile for Kagome's sake, but her face kept trying to break into tears she thought she had already cried into non-existence. "Stop looking scared, Kagome."

The other girl was shocked. Her jaw dropped, and the fork she held as a weapon clattered to the pale linoleum floor. "You… you called me by name… in public!"

Nodding, Rin lowered her head, her voice gentle, but strong enough that everyone could hear it. Rin knew what she had to do.

She had to make amends.

"I know it's not from him, but my brother's dead. You can never hear it from him, but you can from me, from his flesh and blood kin, and… well, from his flesh and blood kin." Rin wanted to scream it. She wanted everyone to know she was a Wiccan too, to let everyone know she believed in a Goddess, and that she saw faeries when no one did, and that she could make flowers of ice or flame from nothing.

"On his behalf, I apologize for everything he's ever done to you. I apologize for the years of teasing, and cruelty, and everything else that he's ever said or done to you. I only wish that words are enough to heal the wounds my brother gave to you. And from me, I also apologize. I… beg for forgiveness for never standing up for you, not just as a girl protecting another girl, but as a human being protecting another human being. He was my brother. I should have tried to get him to stop, and when he said no, I should have tried harder. I should have taken whatever he dished out at me, and never complained even to myself. Please, Kagome, forgive me?"

Rin finally looked up to see Kagome's reaction. Her eyes were welling up with tears, her hands held tightly to her chest as if to keep herself from falling apart. She forgot all about the faces peering in from the entrance of the room, forgot Kohaku and his guilty face, and just saw Rin. She couldn't find the words to speak. Kagome simply tried to get up from her chair to hug Rin, and her body failed her, so that when she threw her arms around Rin, the smaller girl had to support them both, and that was when her sobs broke.

The two young ladies held each other, brushing each other's hair and back as they cried, and said what should have been said years and years ago.

"I'm so sorry."

"Apology accepted."

-

Rin purposefully slammed the doors when she entered the apartment. She'd told Kohaku that she was going to her tutor's, and that she would phone him later that night after repeatedly apologizing for missing their date. Rin promised him a real date, making him turn a bright shade of red, and wondered if she would continue to accept lessons from Miroku. It was tempting. There was something about him, the way he moved and spoke and held himself, that made him a constant thought in her mind.

It was Inuyasha that was the problem.

He was there waiting for her; not Miroku, but Inuyasha. His back was turned away from her, his silver hair cascading down his back as he sat at the small kitchen table, working away at something. She felt the anger swell up in her chest, and decided to let it out. Rin knew she couldn't stay mad at Inuyasha for very long. There was something about him, something deep down that she could barely sense, that had been starving for attention for numerous centuries. It was something human, and that was why she couldn't stay mad at him, despite what he had done.

Whatever Inuyasha did, she knew there was a small part of him that hated himself for it, and so she knew he had already punished himself.

She pitied him.

So, she pulled together all that hate she had in her little faerie-like body, she marched up to Inuyasha, and slapped him as hard as she could across his cheek, getting ready to yell at him.

Except it wasn't Inuyasha.

Rin found herself staring at the prettiest man she had ever seen. He had the same hair and eyes as Inuyasha, but his hair was slick and not so wild as the younger man's, and his eyes more pointed, golden weapons that sliced her mind open and saw everything, throwing her cheeks into a red blush. His skin, unlike hers, she thought with some bitterness, was perfectly colored and stretched tightly against high cheek bones and a narrow chin. His lips were drawn into a thin line and were pale, but the skin appeared soft, lending him a sensuous air.

He raised a hand to a cheek that was barely turning pink, and was graceful. His muscles rippled under his silk shirt, and his hand was just as artful. His fingers were slender, and delicate in the way they touched his cheek, his golden eyes showing the slightest amount of surprise at being injured. His nails, like Inuyasha's, were more like claws, but they weren't as animal-like.

He spoke, and his voice sounded as smooth as his arms and shirt. "You attacked me without reason." Then his eyes moved up to hers, and his eyes flashed with ferocity. "And you're human."

Fear overtook her as he slid out of his seat, leaving behind the trinket he had been playing with. Her feet stumbled to back up, trying to gain her ground as he advanced on her. She wondered why he was moving so slowly, when she had seen Inuyasha move at three times his speed, and then she saw that he was enjoying it. He was actually getting off of the way she was trying to keep her off balance, the way she was trying to maneuver the furniture between them to protect herself.

Balling her fists, she caught him by surprise and she readied herself on summoning up fire. "Look, I'm sorry, I thought you were Inuyasha! And speaking of which, what the fuck did you do with Inuyasha and Miroku?" She stood her ground, and was about to call up the fire when he showed an ounce more surprise; coming from him, it seemed more like a truckload.

"No, not a human… a little witch." Before she could summon up the fire, his hands were on her arms, drawing her against a hard chest. His long fingers took her chin, tilting her face up and to the side. Suddenly, his warm breath was on her neck, his tongue flickering against her skin as he spoke. "It's been years since I've had a witch."

Rin grabbed on to his arms, and shoved the fire straight into him. Fire killed vampires, right? But he didn't get hurt. He didn't even flinch. She suddenly felt his fangs on her skin, toying with her before he ripped open her throat the same way Inuyasha ripped open Kuranosuke's. She reacted without thinking, screaming Miroku's name at the top of her lungs. Then, still gripping his arms, she narrowed her own eyes. He liked fire? How about ice, then!?

She shoved ice into his body, and he leapt away in pain, nearly pulling her arms from their sockets. She glared at him, and she readied herself for the battle that she knew was coming when the two bedroom doors slammed open, and Miroku and Inuyasha burst into the room.

She glanced at them both and then covered her eyes. "Guys! Guys! _Clothes_! I don't need to see a penis that's seven hundred years old!" Both men went red and turned to go back into their rooms, throwing on pants. Rin touched her cheeks, feeling her blush start to go away. 'Still… very fine looking men, despite their age.'

Looking back up at the other man, who was now showing no signs of ever being slapped across the face, she stubbornly held her place, her chin held high in the air. His smiled down at her smugly. "I see you've met my sons. Seeing as how you seem so… frustrated with Inuyasha, would I be correct in assuming that you're one of Miroku's little pet projects? Perhaps he's teaching you magic?"

Miroku suddenly stepped in front of Rin, keeping her from giving the man a spitfire answer of which Inuyasha would have been proud. Rin was relieved to see that he was wearing a pair of jeans (and from her perspective, the view was quite good). "I am teaching her magic. And she's here early. Come on, Pet. Let's go into my room for now. We can be quite content in there. I'll escort you home when we're done."

She allowed herself to be dragged into Miroku's room and she flopped down on the bed, sulking. "Who is that man, Miroku? How come he called you his sons? Why does he look so much like Inuyasha?" She was silenced when his finger fell over her mouth.

He knelt down, his eyes level with hers, and they were dark, but warm, making her feel relaxed. She really did admire Miroku. She was mad at Inuyasha, but Miroku had done nothing wrong, and she wanted to learn from him. "I'll tell you everything when I take you home, okay? Until then…" Miroku handed Rin a thick magic book. "Let's start, shall we?"

-

The toilet flushed, and Sango crawled back to bed. She pulled the covers up to her shoulders, ignoring her brother in the doorway, who looked at her with such pity she was debating throwing a stuffed animal at him.

"I can't believe you're really sick. You're never sick."

"Tell me about it." Sango stuffed her head under the pillows. She had never been ill like this, never in any of her previous lives. No wonder people complained about it so much! Her whole body ached, her head pounded, she felt weak, food turned her stomach, and her throat felt like it had been rubbed out of existence. What was wrong with her?

All she knew, besides how crappy she felt, was that she needed to go out tonight. She needed to hunt. To Sango, the feeling of a wooden stake sliding into a cold, dead body, was the most healing factor around. Besides, it was not only the idea of taking her revenge on the entire vampire population that drove her to go out hunting this night. There was a feeling of _wrongness_ in the air. It's like what the old clichés say: 'By the pricking of my thumbs/something wicked this way comes'.

Sango tightened the comfortable blankets. She'd go out as soon as it was dark…

As soon as it was dark was exactly when Inuyasha went out. He left the apartment for Kagome's, without even feeding first. He was filled with a kind of youthful enthusiasm, something he had not felt since he had begun the transformation from a weak human to a strong vampire.

Kagome, also sensing something wrong in the air, was having trouble falling asleep, despite the painkillers she was on for all her injuries. So, having nothing better to do, she was up on the internet, talking to Kouga. They were deep in an argument about fishnet stockings (Fashion faux-pas, or fashion must?) when Kagome heard a knocking at her window. She arched an eyebrow, curious, and hobbled over to the window by her bed. What she found was both a pleasant surprise and a shock. "Inuyasha!"

Climbing on to her bed, she lifted the old window for him, but not before she leaned her out the window to see how she had made it to her second floor bedroom. She discovered his unclad feet resting on a thin branch of the tree outside her bedroom. Kagome's wide blue eyes glowed just as his did in the darkness. "You can fly?"

"Float, really. I can be weightless when I want to, but not for very long. It's just a little prestidigitation."

She smiled, slightly astounded at his choice of words. Kagome knew Inuyasha wasn't as slow as he seemed at times, but it was nice to hear him talking like… Miroku. She wished she could be as suave as Miroku too, sometimes, from what Inuyasha told her about him. Despite her secret desire, she simply grinned at him and leaned back on her bed, the vast amounts of drugs she was on making it look a little ditzy. Inuyasha climbed through the window and sat across from her.

"Oh, Inuyasha… did you read the dictionary just for me?"

He growled and his ears flattened out. Kagome was about to give an apology, as apparently Inuyasha wasn't in a teasing mood today, when his growl suddenly turned into a purr. His hands grabbed her arms carefully, holding her against him, and he kissed with so much passion that she had to hold on back and all the haziness from the drugs were cleared away. Her eyes still closed, he pulled away and she licked her lips, tasting him. "Wow…."

Inuyasha chuckled, and left Kagome breathless on the bed to see why lights were flashing on the screen of the computer. Upper lip curling into a sneer when he saw whom she was talking to, Inuyasha shoved his hands into his pockets. "Kouga. He's such an idiot. Why do you even hang out with him?"

"Well, he… wait. How do you even know about Kouga? I've never told you about him." She raised an eyebrow suspiciously, and started climbing off the bed. Inuyasha went a bit red, and he flicked off the computer screen to sit beside her on the bed. He raised an arm for a second, about to put his arm around her shoulder, but then he decided not to. Instead he placed his hands on his white washed jeans, and breathed out heavily. Kagome stayed where she was.

Inuyasha had forgotten that he wasn't supposed to know about any of Kouga's little adventures, the ones that Rin had told him about as she had sat at the dinner table the night before, brushing his hair and chatting in a friendly, childish manner. Now things were tense. He knew that Kagome wasn't going to forgot about his little mistake for a long time, and now he needed a way to bring up his little quest.

Deep in his thoughts, Kagome startled him by suddenly peeling his hands off of his tight jeans, and placing it around her waist, leaning her head on his shoulder and placing her good hand against his chest. She let out a little sigh. "I'm glad you came to visit me."

Tentatively, he wrapped his other hand around her waist and lay down on the bed. Kagome brought forward a few strands of his hair and played with them, thinking out loud. "I've never seen you dressed like this before. I mean, there are rips in your jeans, and your shirt…" Kagome giggled at his shirt. He was wearing a blue shirt, the buttons open enough to reveal his chest and stomach, the flannel material warm under her skin, and she had to agree that plaid looked good on Inuyasha. Anything looked good on him.

"And your hair is all disheveled. Usually you take so much time in brushing your hair, trying to make it look all sleek and stuff. But… I actually like it like this too. I never thought that disheveled could look good. It's actually kind of attractive. It reminds me of how wild you are. It looks good. But… like I always say: anything looks good on you."

Chuckling, Inuyasha kissed her forehead. She was surprised at his tenderness. "Does that mean we should go downstairs and get some whipped cream or something, for you?"

"No… but… I mean…." Kagome blushed, and she pulled at the end of his shirt. Sensing what she wanted, Inuyasha released her to pull off his shirt, and then took her in his arms once more Kagome stroked his chest and arms lightly, taking pride in the way he felt. "How is it that you can be so warm, and yet you're a vampire? Aren't you all supposed to be cold?"

"I am cold. I can walk into a freezer and live in there for a day or two without any problem at all." He cautiously took her hand and placed it over his heart. "It's just warm because you think it's warm. I don't get cold; I don't get goosebumps…"

Kagome jutted his chin lightly with her head, and he stopped, letting the silence fall between them and soothe over their strange, distant worlds. His fingers ran up and down her arm, and Inuyasha slowly rolled over to his side, his fingers running all over Kagome's body, searching for the wounds that Kuranosuke had made. Finding them still not healed, Inuyasha frowned, ignorant of the silver hair cascading around them, sparkling in the dim light of her bedroom. "You're still injured?"

"Vampires might be able to heal in one night, but not humans." Kagome did not appear worried by the cuts she still carried, and Inuyasha wondered how much they hurt, how much deeper those few cuts and scrapes went. He could tell that she was in pain; he didn't need Miroku and his aura reading to know that much. He could see it in her eyes. They were slightly clouded over, the part of her mind that could feel the bruises deeply rooted in her tissues locked away with drugs.

He held her hand tightly, his thumb running over her knuckles, and he only dared half looking at her. "You could heal faster if you…" His golden eyes suddenly rose to hers, half-pleading. He didn't want Kagome to become a vampire like him, and nor did he want Kagome to continue being in pain. His voice was quiet, and Kagome thought she hadn't heard correctly. "…drank my blood."

She froze. Had she heard him right? Kagome, true enough, had drunk some of Inuyasha's blood once, and now that it wasn't an idea in the heat of the moment, when her brain was abuzz and her body longing to be closer to Inuyasha's, she knew it was a foolish idea. What about Sango? Sango would know! She'd somehow know that Kagome was drinking Inuyasha's blood, and the wounds were really healing fine on their own, just not from the perspective of a vampire, especially one as strong as Inuyasha.

Besides, there was one other larger problem. Kagome wanted to say yes. Remembering what it was like to feel the blood run down her throat, feel the searing warmth of his skin, feel his body under hers, becoming the tamer of the night, the tamer of beasts, the simple _power_ that came from it… she had to say no! People weren't kidding when they had written that trading blood could be addictive.

Kagome was dying to say yes! She needed his blood! She needed to say yes! She needed to…

"No!" Kagome had to snap it out to form the right word. Her expression softened and she curled up underneath his chin, laying her head over his heart. "I want to say yes, Inuyasha. I really want to. It was… one of the most amazing experiences of my life. But I can't! The more I drink of it, the more I'm going to want to do it again and…"

Cupping her face, he raised it to his lips and kissed her mouth gently, stroking down her hair. "I understand. I mean, for a moment there, when you were drinking my blood, you looked so wild and beautiful that it was… one of the most arousing experiences of my life. And it was also one of the most frightening. I don't like seeing you look like that. I mean, it's a nice change, but… imagining you becoming a murderess is far from the girl that caught my attention. I… I like you for being who you are; I don't want to change that."

She smiled. It was good. She kept on telling Sango that Inuyasha was good deep down his heart. Kagome wasn't sure if she liked the idea of being kept preserved in golden eyes of glass, but the intention was good. Unable to say the words she wanted to out loud, she merely mouthed them, and they went by unnoticed.

Inuyasha could bare it no longer. Still holding Kagome, he asked if she liked his gift, and when she asked what gift, Inuyasha was hurt. In one of his mood swings Kagome thought she was beginning to understand and avoid, he pushed her away. She didn't even know he had given her a gift? He'd worked so hard at it! Everything had been perfect, and she didn't even know there was a gift!

His gold eyes had turned fierce, golden walls that he used to protect himself, and his fangs were visible again. Kagome's throat was beginning to look very good, but he had more important matters to attend to, and then he could go and hunt to his heart's delight.

"Nobody's allowed to hurt you like that! I wanted to protect you, and I did! Now he can never hurt you again! I made sure of it!"

She stared at him, wondering how somebody who looked like a little child that found out his loved one didn't like his macaroni art gift could look so much like a hero. He looked, stubborn, and noble, and Kagome placed her hands on his cheek, drawing him down to give him a sweet kiss. "I'm sorry, Inuyasha. I still don't know what you're talking about. I don't mind the thought of you protecting me, it's actually really nice, it's just that I like you best protecting me like this, by being around me. If I have someone as strong as you being my eyes in the night, then I have nothing to worry about."

Her brilliant use of complimentary tactics went unnoticed by Inuyasha for at least a moment. Then he pursed his lips and stared down at her. "If that's the case then how come when I tried to protect you from Kuranosuke, you cast a spell on me and told me to sit?"

Kagome winced as she remembered. "Ah…" Could she come up with a lie fast enough? She put on her sweetest smile. "Well, that's beside the point. Anyway… tell me more about… Inuyasha?"

It suddenly dawned on her. She didn't know how she had fallen on the truth so suddenly, just that she was thinking, and there it was; it had been something about the way he moved, the way he looked, the tone of his voice. He was talking about Kuranosuke.

He had killed Kuranosuke.

Her hands automatically flinched, and she pulled away from him. Kagome had not been this scared of Inuyasha in a few weeks, but for some reason, it had felt like a lifetime. He promised he'd protect her, that he would never take anyone else from her, and what did he do? He brutally murdered someone! All of the students had been talking about how disfigured the body was. She stared up at him, filled with horror. "You…"

Inuyasha tried to speak to her, he tried to explain to her why he had done it all, but she suddenly pushed him away from her, and the horror had been replaced with anger. "Get out." She repeated it with more ferocity, using the anger to protect herself.

Inuyasha picked himself up and dusted himself off, but did not leave. He just stared at her as she knelt on the bed. Her whole body was shaking. "Get _out_!"

Inuyasha didn't understand. He spread his hands wide as he looked down at her, trying to understand why she didn't like his gift. He'd done right, hadn't he? He'd protected her! He'd made sure nobody could hurt her again, so how come it looked more like he had been the one that had hurt her, like he was the one she wanted dead at that moment? "But… But Kagome, I did this for you! I… it was for _you_!"

Looking up at him, with his puppy ears folded back, and his expression that of a wounded child, Kagome felt her resolve disappear. He really didn't understand, did he? His world was so simple compared to hers: if there's an enemy, kill them. There just seemed to be something in his nature that made it nasty; something that made him do it as grotesquely as he could, that made him make it look like an animal had done it.

She slowly slid up, and placed her hands against his chest, giving him the briefest, tiniest little smile. "Inuyasha, thank you for trying to protect me. Please, go on protecting me. Please, _be_ my knight in shining armor, just, _please_ don't kill for me. Don't hurt people for me. No matter how fierce the dragon looks, I don't want to see him die, and I believe that he can be turned into an ally. So, please, don't kill for me. But Inuyasha, please, you have to get out. I… need to think."

"I want to stay; I can help you think. You can bounce ideas off of me…"

"No, I need to think by myself, away from you. Because I need to think about you. I thought that you'd given up killing, Inuyasha. But you didn't, and it was even… it was… more brutal than the other ones I know you've committed. I just need to think. Please?"

Inuyasha's ears went back. He understood. Inuyasha kissed her forehead, touching her arms gently, and then he drifted away into nothingness.

-

Leaning against the brick wall of one of the downtown buildings, Sango tried to keep her stomach under control. When the nausea vanished, she picked herself back up again and continued wandering the downtown sector by the beach, an area filled with large buildings used for storage by the smaller shipping companies that transported across the ocean. The sea air made her feel slightly better, but her stomach still sent out a shot of pain whenever she moved the wrong way, and her head pounded.

In short, Sango felt like shit.

She was probably an idiot for going out, given that she was hunting down vampires. If they killed her now, she'd be really pissed. After all, she had just made friends, and she had just found Miroku. She _really_ wanted Miroku to die first. Yes, it had been stupid going out in such a condition, but she _needed_ to go out. There was something wrong in the city.

This was a wharf area: there should have been rats, mice, stray cats, and other animals wandering around. There should even have been owls hunting the mice, or other night birds. But there was nothing. She couldn't even hear the ocean anymore. It was absolute silence.

Her head perked up, and she whirled around, almost needing to use the lampposts and walls as support. There was a vampire. Was she really out of it, and she couldn't sense his aura anymore, or was he a master at hiding his presence? Then her nostrils caught his scent, and Sango was aware of how much trouble she was really. It was Miroku.

He stood in a pool of light, his leather jacket catching the rays of the lamp. He flicked his long bangs out of his eyes, his earrings sparkling in the bright light, and he slowly slid forward, his long legs looking as if they weren't moving. He was very graceful, moving like a dancer. But then, he'd had how many centuries to practice such a simple thing as walking?

Sango had never seen any vampire look so beautiful. Not even Sesshomaru. Miroku was cautious in each of his movements, yet somehow he seemed… it was impossible to put into words! His voice was scholarly, his clothes roguish, his demeanor that of a hunter… if he hadn't been a vampire, if he had just been a normal man, Sango would have crawled over broken glass to protect him. He was beautiful, and dangerous, and… and… and sexy.

She straightened, though it pained her stomach to do so. If the bastard was going to kill her again, she wanted to be able to meet her death with honor.

"I was just dropping off a friend of mine, and whose scent should I discover lingering in the air, but yours. It really was such a pleasant surprise. I mean, I haven't fed yet, and the Slayer is walking around my area of town. It's like she wanted to find death." He crossed his arms over his muscled chest, his smile beautiful, but cruel.

Miroku was so expressive with his face, not just for a vampire, but for a human as well. It had to have something to do with his eyebrows and his dark eyes, as well as that sculpted mouth of his. "And here I am."

Sango withdrew the stake from her back pocket while she still could. Any second now, she knew, Miroku was going to use his powers of telepathy and her mind was going to become numb. That's when he was going to start killing her. But, on the bright side, maybe it meant that if he killed her she would become stronger at telepathy and aura-reading. "How about this time we do things the honorable way?"

He arched an eyebrow and moved closer. "This time?"

Sango cursed herself. She hadn't meant to say that! 'That's okay, Sango. Just recover quickly with a lie.' Sango held her chin high. "I know how you killed her. I can see it in your eyes. You tricked her into dying, you took advantage of her, just because you're suave. Well, I won't be fooled so easily, and so you see me as a game. You don't want to trick me into dying, you want to make my life so horrible that I'm going to willingly come to you to and ask for you to kill me."

He moved closer still, and his cruel smile turned into a smirk. "You're lying." Miroku paused, his eyes roaming in the air around her. "I don't know what you're lying about, my little Sango, but you're lying."

"I'm _not_ your little Sango!"

"Oh, feisty…" He chuckled dryly, and when he took another step toward her, she flipped the stake in her hands, reminding him that she was armed. Miroku shoved his hands in his pockets, pacing back and forth in front of her. "You are right, however. This is a game to me. In fact, I already know how to set you off balance. You like being in control of the situation. When you lose control, when you feel helpless or when your body doesn't listen to you, you start feeling nervous, and a bit like a caged animal, ready to leash out at anyone."

As he spoke, Sango felt the numbness start to seep into her mind. She shook her head, trying to clear it, and then yelled at herself for making such a stupid mistake. The whole ground felt like it was shaking, the world spinning, and the stars darkening and then brightening again. She really shouldn't have come out!

"Keep your lecherous mind out of mine." Sango glared at him as best she could when the lamp posts seemed to be spiraling in on themselves. "Pervert."

He grinned, and suddenly she lost track of him. He vanished when the world was hazy, and she didn't know where he had disappeared to until his hand landed on her ass, rubbing up and down gently. Sango's body shuddered with repulsion and she spun around. The world turned into a colorful blur, like cotton candy and rainbow sherbet blending together only a hundred times darker. But she clung to the stake in her hand, and lifetimes of fighting kicked in. Blinded or not, she could still tell where Miroku was, she could still perceive the pale aura laced with colors of amusement and not a drop of fear.

Miroku liked this teasing; he was able to make her feel off-balanced even when he wasn't placing suggestions in her mind. However, when Sango spun around and sliced his cheek with the stake, it just made things all the more interesting. He touched it gingerly, his eyes slowly moving from his blood-covered fingers to stare at Sango, memorizing the way her chest moved, the way her aura danced. His warm tongue snaked out slowly to lap at the blood rolling down his fingers, and he could see the small flares of arousal in her aura. "Very feisty."

Sango darted forward, and her ankle wavered. She missed Miroku by miles, slamming against the wall. Her whole left side felt like a bruise, and her skin was cut from the sharp corners of bricks. Whirling around, she tried not to let the swirling colors nauseate her. It wasn't quite working that well. She could fight with her eyes closed, picking up on just his aura, but that would have made it more obvious that she was having trouble. She knew already that with her color and sense of balance being off kilter that he knew she was weak; she didn't want Miroku knowing she was blind too.

He just laughed at her, and Sango did a spinning kick, catching him in his chin. His head snapped back, and he staggered back a few steps. Miroku rubbed his chin, and when she tried to kick again, he caught her foot. His fingertips were gentle on her skin which only bugged her more. He put his weight on the foot, slamming her into the ground. Unprepared and still not even sure of where the ground was, the wind was knocked from Sango's body, and before she could recover, Miroku pounced.

His body was heavy on hers. His knees were holding down her pelvis, her wrists held fast by his hands, and as she coughed and wheezed to regain her breath, Miroku grinned and leaned down. His warm tongue ran in a stripe; over her lips, her nose, her forehead. Sango froze again.

Normally she would have gotten even more pissed off and she would have lashed out, shredding skin with her nails and aiming for the vulnerable areas, fighting tooth and nail to kill, kill, kill. But not with Miroku. He touched her like that, and her heart began beating faster and yet, she froze. She knew she was angry. She could feel the burning desire to watch the blood flow and turn into ash in the salty breeze of the sea, but she couldn't attack him. Was the numbness back in her brain and she just couldn't tell?

No, it wasn't. Her mind was screaming, cursing in anger and a desire to see his soul tortured in a series of frenzying thoughts that went beyond obsession. She stared up at him in horror as he licked his lips carefully, his violet-grey eyes turning into onyx orbs that tore at her mind, threatening to devour all of her secrets. As if that wasn't bad enough, his canine teeth slowly lowered, until they rested on the curve of his sensuous mouth. He was astonishingly beautiful. God, so beautiful! But Sango couldn't admire that at all; she barely took notice of how much care he had taken in making himself the secret lover in every woman's fantasy, a Don Juan in tight blue jeans and a leather jacket, because her mind's screaming went up to full volume.

Miroku winced as he picked up on her thoughts. They were so strong that it was giving him a headache. Hell, they were so loud that a normal human would probably think they were hearing a woman screaming from a street or two over. It meant that he was either going to have to give up, or else he was going to have to go fast. Miroku shrugged. If a human interrupted him, then he'd just make some idle comment about pick-up food, and be off, leaving Sango for another day.

Until such a time, Miroku leaned back, letting the way her mind cursed and screamed flow through him. Such agony, such pain and fear and hatred! Oh, it was glorious. The words pushed and pulled at his mind, showing him just how much power he had over her.

He gazed down at her, her eyes unable to focus clearly still, her breathing harsh and painful, her cheeks flushed, her hair plastered to her forehead with sweet sweat, her pink lips parted. She was beautiful. Human, but still beautiful. If she were one of the undead… he'd never leave her side. He'd gladly give up being the Judge just to spend a lifetime at her side.

But such were dangerous thoughts, and so Miroku closed his eyes and refused to dwell on what could be, and instead he focused on the moment. He leaned back over her body, and kissed her forehead. He kissed her nose, and her pink cheeks. He gently kissed her lips, and she was so surprised by how lightly he kissed her, by how gentle and careful he was, Miroku was able to lift his hands from hers, and this time, she didn't strike him out of confusion.

She knew what was coming next as he tilted her head to the side, exposing her pale throat. She knew that it had been coming when he kissed her, and she was so upset that she hadn't fought that she wanted to cry. Sango knew she should have been more prepared! She had died like this before, but then, the kisses the vampire had given her had been harsh, stolen kisses that made her vomit from repulsion. She hadn't been prepared for… for Miroku.

What _would_ it be like to have him as a lover? Someone so strong that gave you gentle, sweet kisses and treated you tenderly, their bodies filled with such hidden power… and to be able to read your mind as well!

He used the tip of his tongue to gently lick her neck. Sango heard herself give out a small moan, and immediately slammed her mouth shut. The screaming in her mind stopped, and she patiently waited for the perfect moment to strike. She refused to die! She refused to leave behind a twin brother, a mother who loved her very much, her pet cat, and best of all, her two new best friends!

Miroku's mouth opened wide. He was just going to take a little bit, wet his whistle, tempt himself for the day when he could gorge himself on all of her body. His teeth touched her skin, and he moaned loudly. God, she tasted good! But… wasn't this a bit too easy, for the Slayer?

In that one pleasurable moment Miroku felt when the sound of her rushing blood covered his own thoughts, Sango struck. She grabbed his shoulders and bucked her hips, and Miroku sailed over her body, landing on his back hard enough for his thoughts to momentarily become jumbled.

Rolling around in an attempt to get up, she wavered on her hands and knees, but the exertion of moving too much and using up energy she didn't have caught up with her. When Miroku sat up, he found her retching on all fours. Suddenly, he did know that it had been too easy. This wasn't the fight that Miroku had expected.

"I've never seen anybody vomit so much…"

She gave him the middle finger, and rolled over, leaning on the wall as she breathed heavily. Her eyes closed, she still thought Miroku was staring at her until she felt his hands on her. This time, they weren't taking advantage of her. They wrapped around her, and picked her, cradling her against his chest. Sango muttered a curse, and Miroku shushed her. His arms were strong, and for some reason, she felt safe, though she thought Miroku was anything but.

"This isn't the fight I wanted," he said, and his voice was a pleasant rumble to listen to. "Just be quiet, will you? Let me take you home for the night. I was an idiot for not noticing before. You even have a fever. That's why you're sweating."

"I'm perfectly fine." Her voice was groggy. Her head sagged against his shoulder, and she was only slightly surprised to find that he was strong and muscular. "Put me down, Miroku."

His name had never sounded so good before. Miroku smiled to hear her say it, loved watching her mouth form the word. With her eyes closed, she looked like just a normal, sick little girl. Miroku felt his face soften. What was the Slayer exactly, that such a young girl was given such a weight to carry? He began walking, and to keep herself from falling, Sango had to wrap his arms around his neck, pressing herself further against him. He would have leapt to the rooftops, but he worried it might disturb her stomach more, so he stuck to the back streets, walking out of the ocean side warehouse area. "Where do you live, little Sango?"

"Fuck you…" She yawned.

Miroku chuckled. Sick and tired, but still a little fire cracker. "I mean it, Sango. I'm going to take you home. So, either tell me your address or I'll take it from your mind."

"I can't… trust you…"

Miroku rationalized: she had a point. From her perspective, he couldn't be trusted at all. To know where she lived meant that he had found her nest, and on any given night, he could steal her family from her or destroy her home. He needed to prove that she could trust him. Miroku shifted her softly, and scooped up the stake laying on the ground. He pressed it against her side, and she automatically grabbed it. He then took her hand, and pointed it against his chest, angled at his heart. Sango felt what he was doing and her eyes snapped open. "What?"

He looked down at her, and his eyes were back to violet-grey, his fangs gone. He looked completely vulnerable, and completely serious. "If you really think that you can't trust me, then stab me right now. I'm not going to lie to you. Yes, I want you dead, and yes, I want to be the one to do it. But I also want a fair fight. No under-handed tricks from either of us, just both of us using our abilities to the best to see who is stronger. Either of us can win. But I refuse to win because my enemy wasn't at top strength. And so, even though I will fight you, I will also carry you home, tuck you in, and bring you chicken noodle soup until you're feeling better." He paused, giving Sango time to consider his words and to stake him if that's what she felt was best.

Still holding the stake, Sango held it against her chest like stuffed animal, her other arm still holding on to Miroku. She closed her eyes again. Miroku didn't know what it was that had convinced her, but she told him his address, and he took off down the street. Soon, he even started humming softly, singing to her the way that his father used to sing to him before he had gone to the monastery and tried to become a monk.

Miroku walked her all the way to the house, humming and singing the whole way. When they got to the house, Sango struggled to get out of his arms and pull her key out of her bra. She succeeded in both, but the moment she tried stepping towards the door, her leg gave out from underneath her. Luckily, Miroku was right there to catch her. He tried taking the key from her, and she resisted furiously.

He whipped his hand away before she could bite it off. "Sango, you can barely stand up. Let me take you inside!"

"No! If you go inside my house… then you can come in anytime!"

"And if you don't let me into your house, then you're not going to get inside either. If you're worried about your family… I will not attack them. I give you my word, my honor, everything. Look, if any harm comes to your twin brother, you can… have my heart! I won't even resist you."

Sango snapped her head around, and for the first time that night, the world didn't turn into a mist. She was too scared to notice if it did or not. "Don't you dare mention my brother like that again!"

Staring up at him a moment, Sango was sad when she shook her head. She was actually tempted at saying yes and having him carry her up the stairs, up to her bed where he would lay her down and tuck her in. "I can't take the risk. Just… help me to the door. I'm good after that."

He did escort her up to the door. Sango slipped into the house, and the door shut in Miroku's face. He walked back out to the curb, and stood on the sidewalk, staring at Sango's house as her bedroom light flipped on, and off. Even after he was certain she was asleep, Miroku hung out a long time on the sidewalk, thinking.e


	14. Into the Mind of a Killer

AN: This update is brought to you by Aamalie, who bribed me. May I present: another chapter about everyone's favorite vampires: Miroku and Sesshy.

…what? Doesn't anyone out there care for poor little Inuyasha? I do. ::hugs Inuyasha:: There, there. The next two chapters are all about you, Inuyasha, so hopefully you will get the respect you deserve then. (I kid, I kid, all of you have your favorites and have very good—and different—opinions of them. I am really quite proud to have such insightful readers. Naw, make then incredibly proud.) ::grins stupidly:: And there were really quite a few comments about Inuyasha… it made me even more proud that the MS everyone loves hasn't overshadowed other characters.

And _Blooded_ is getting to be so old! One hundred reviews already. ::cries::

As a little side note… this contains adult situations: namely sex. If you have a problem with this, or are not mature enough to handle this… skip the part in italics and just go straight to the end.

::dances:: Enjoy… don't you love days off!?

Lily Thorne: Your perseverance is astounding! And Miroku has much more than honor. As this chapter starts to suggest, he has a streak of humanity: pity, compassion, etc. I think he even feels a little bit guilty about killing Sango in his last life, but he won't admit that. As he tells Inuyasha (er, eventually): pity is pointless.

Aamlie: Why would you want garlic? I say let him bite you! I mean… ::grins:: well, you'll see once you figure out how Miroku likes to feed. There's a reason why he's such a good telepath, after all. And why he is so sexual in this fic. And I love Rin. I ha so much fun writing that scene with Sesshy!

Fireblade: Yay! Another person who likes Rin being fiery. I am proud. And Inuyasha is supposed to be just like this little kid trapped in the body of an adult, refusing to really quite grow up. He's got the Peter Pan complex.

Raivyn: I know, isn't it gorgeous? I mean… just…. ::drools:: I now have to keep a collection of drool buckets, just in case.

Chadirific: ::coughs dramatically:: I am not responsible for you dying after the end of this chapter. ::walks away to go sign legal papers::

Nigellashade: While I would love to actually do a biting scene between Sango and Miroku… don't count on it. Sango wouldn't stand for it. This is a girl who hates vampire so much she has suffered continually and comes back to kill them. No matter how much she may end up liking Miroku in this fic, that hate is too much and so, sadly, there will not be a biting scene between them. The simple fact that Miroku is a vampire keeps Sango from ever trusting him that much. In fact, if you pay close attention, you'll notice that—in reality—the times when she opens up to him the most is when they aren't acting like a Slayer and a vampire, but just as two normal teenagers… though Miroku is really supposed to be more like 21-ish…

Queenizzay: How you could you skip Rin? ::holds up Rin:: Look at how gosh darn cute she is!

Starzki: The reason why I can update so quickly is because of this: caffeine, and the fact that these chapters are actually months old. I wrote some of these in the summer, while I had no net and was on vacation. I stock piled them up and held them off because I wanted to clean it up and plan it out before I posted it.

Ninalee-chan: You know, I nearly peed myself laughing when I read your review, as mean as it is too me. Just, the image you described was funny and quite touching. But as to coworker L, I wonder how something can sound like silk and sex. Because if you were watching the English version, I highly recommend getting your hands on Escaflowne, another romantic anime, in which Kirby Morrow (Miroku's English voice actor) plays the main character. Thank you all for the nice review!

Krisa-chan: Don't worry, love. I suck at summaries. If you can think of another one that fits in the there that suits the story, feel free to suggest it. I never thought of the "Ranma" seen being like Darla… mainly because I only started watching Buffy until the second season, so I haven't seen that episode. And your English is wonderful, in my opinion. (The spelling mistakes we can blame on typos!) ::grins:: and wow, Germany. I'm always awed by how the net brings people together like that!

Thank you to everyone else who reviewed!

Enjoy!

Love, PoF

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Inside the Mind of a Killer**

Tuesday, September 26th, 11:39 pm

Miroku walked home, well-fed and physically satiated, but he was infatuated with the idea of the Slayer. She was beautiful, and filled with spit and vinegar, but still sweet to the senses. She was intoxicating. Why couldn't he stop thinking about her?

What would it be like to make her one of the living dead? She was already so strong, he bet that by adding the speed of the dead, she would be unstoppable. But wasn't she the Slayer because she hated vampires? There was no way that she could possibly be willing to become a vampire, as she was determined to spend her entire life tracking them down systematically, torturing them as much as vampires did humans.

Such was the irony of life: the world's strongest person would never reach her full potential because it would mean becoming something she hated. Miroku himself had been in that position once, but he chose to become the thing he hated. Though he would not have chosen anything else and could not possibly imagine life as anything but a vampire, deep down her admired her tenacity to remain what God had made her.

But, what were such thoughts to a dead man? He had many other things to think about: the pleasant buzzing in his head from drinking blood, the young girl who had latched on to him and he now trained, the first vampire that was sitting in his living room more than likely, and of course, how to best destroy the Slayer.

Inuyasha caught up with him, and after walking in silence for a few minutes, Miroku finally noticed the sullen expression on his brother's face. He shrugged his shoulders back, standing up taller. He was the eldest, after all, and so he couldn't show Inuyasha any of his own brooding thoughts. "What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing," Inuyasha snapped in a bored voice. He kicked at the pebbles in the street with his bare feet, and Miroku noticed the same thing Kagome had: Inuyasha was dressed rather sloppily.

"Inuyasha…."

"Kagome kicked me out. I don't know what I did wrong. I thought that… well, what I thought was stupid."

"Let me guess: you thought that she was going to come running into your arms and cover you in kisses and tell you to make love to her because she was so happy that she had you as a knight to protect her."

The dog-eared vampire stared down at Miroku. He blinked his golden eyes and then turned back to the sidewalk as his cheeks began to turn red. "Actually, that was a lot like what I had thought was going to happen. I promised Kagome not to kill anymore of her family, promised that I would never hurt anyone she cared about, but it was just a bully. It was just an asshole. There's a pound for a penny of them these days, so why does she even care that I killed him?"

His ears flickered, and his fangs glistened as he wondered and thought. He looked back down at Miroku with a horrified and angered expression. "Unless… you think she really did like him?"

Miroku frowned. Inuyasha was so stupidly naïve sometimes, it hurt his head. But, that was part of Inuyasha's charm in the end. He was centuries old, and still a child. Sesshomaru had chosen to change Inuyasha for reasons other than his intelligence and perception.

"Perhaps, Inuyasha, Kagome is the type of girl who cares for everybody. She seems like the empathic type to me. But regardless of whether or not she is empathic or a bleeding heart, you should bury your feelings deep down inside. Sesshomaru will easily sense them, and for breaking the law, for caring for the girl instead of toying with her, Sesshomaru will have no trouble sentencing you to death, even if it is his blood that runs in your veins. And you know who will have to act out that sentence, Inuyasha." The warning tone in Miroku's voice was unmistakable, as was the hint of regret.

"Why the hell did he show up here, anyway?" Inuyasha grumbled, crossing his arms and shuffling along again.

Miroku only sighed.

-

What had seemed like a curse, turned out to be a blessing. Inuyasha, Miroku, and Sesshomaru were sitting in the living room of the wharf loft. Miroku was hugging a pillow and watching Inuyasha play Soul Calibur while Sesshomaru read, the first suddenly got a wonderful idea. To know how to kill a Slayer, you must first know where they came from.

"Fuck you! Why won't you fucking die, Sung Mina? Fuck you and your bow staff! Fucking die!"

Miroku sighed. There was a reason why he liked watching Inuyasha play video games. It was very entertaining, but there was a lot of swearing and yelling involved. Sesshomaru didn't seem to mind, and as long as it kept Inuyasha from saying anything about Kagome, Miroku wasn't going to say anything about the language and violence either. Besides, he kind of enjoyed watching the computer kick the crap out of Inuyasha.

"Lord Sesshomaru," he said politely, waiting for the tall vampire to put the newspaper down before he continued. When he did, and focused those golden eyes on Miroku, Miroku's whole demeanor changed, his shoulder muscles relaxing and his arms tightening around the pillow. He kept his own eyes down, so aware of the gold gaze that studied his face and body movements that each time he blinked or moved a muscle it felt searing hot. "Lord Sesshomaru… please, tell me about the Slayer."

The original vampire, the strongest being in all of creation, was silent for a moment. Even Inuyasha's ears piqued up, and he didn't care that Sung Mina was winning anymore. He looked at his favorite of his two children, the young vampire that was almost identical to him, and the ex-monk that was capable of the same level of intelligent conversations as he, though the ex-monk was several centuries younger. He did not smile, but his gaze softened so slightly that only the blood of his blood could notice it. "I see, Miroku. You killed a Slayer several years back, and now you want to satisfy your curiosity, don't you?"

"Or maybe it's because the Slayer is here in town," Inuyasha muttered. Miroku shot his brother a look, and Sesshomaru was suddenly very cold; colder than normal. Inuyasha's ears lowered, and he appeared reprimanded though no one has said a word. "Er… was that something I shouldn't have said?"

"No, Inuyasha, that was something that you should have said earlier. Since I arrived here yesterday, I did not endanger your presence in this town, and now I find out that the Slayer is here. I have not had the Slayer blood in decades. I should like to drink again… or is it that my son here wanted to try his attempts first?"

Miroku actually felt his cheeks start to turn red. "Well, ah, sir, actually, I did want to try and take down the Slayer first. My first kill… I regret it now. It was too quick, without any flair or show of power. I tricked her into letting me get one strike in, and bound her so tightly she could not escape, and then I gorged myself on her blood. I'm a second generation vampire. That was the pathetic attempt of a thirteenth generation, my lord. I want to… I wanted to make her life horrible, make her hate us, but she hates us already, doesn't she? She hates us enough to be the strongest human in the world just to have the power to drive a stake into our hearts. No, I'm one of your first born, sir. I want to do something complicated, stretch my powers."

He licked his lips with the tip of his tongue, finding the thought he had suddenly developed so arousing that even he, in his dead state, felt his physical urges were too hard to control. His fangs had grown, his skin all but glowing from the paleness it cast from the unholy light burning in his core.

"I want to make her long to be with me. I want to make her want my blood as I do hers, and then I want to make her accept your blood, my lord. I want to make her one of us."

Sesshomaru stared at his son, and he suddenly smiled. It was not a wisp of a smile that only his sons and daughters could see, but one so large even a blind man could have felt its presence, and be scared by it.

"That's a rather extraordinary idea, Miroku. It's quite ambitious. Even I wouldn't have been so ambitious. I will give you one whole year to accomplish this. If, by that time, she has not been turned into a vampire, I will dispose of her, in any means I see fit. She is, after all, my enemy, and not yours. She's only hunting the rest of you to hurt me."

Inuyasha left the controller completely, and slid up next to the couch Miroku and Sesshomaru sat on. His eyes were wide with interest, and Miroku wondered if this might be how he looked with Kagome, more like a puppy dog interested in learning everything rather than some ferocious beast. "What do you mean?" He folded his hands over each other and rested them on Sesshoamru's knee, his cheek laying against his rough limbs. "Isn't she trying to kill us just because she hates us? And really, don't we need someone to hunt us, a predator to keep us from over populating and killing ourselves by drinking the Earth dry of blood?"

"Perhaps whatever fair mind rules the land planned it thus, but as far as I'm concerned, she kills us to hurt me, and only me." Sesshomaru reached out and began to slide his supple, long fingers through Inuaysha's silver hair. "I will allow you two to know something that I have kept secret, out of my own fears."

The two brothers glanced at each other, showing each other worry and curiosity. What would the first vampire ever have to be worried about? He was a god among all creatures that roamed the Earth! No tree could poison him, no blade cut his skin, no ray of light or holy object burn him…

Picking up on their thoughts, he leaned back, still playing with Inuyasha's hair the way he had when Inuyasha was still a pathetic human child and not one of the superior race. "I have never told anybody this because I never wanted to lose the respect of my children, but in reality, I am responsible for making the Slayer.

"When I had first become a vampire, I was experimenting, trying to find out what blood would make me the strongest. Until that point, I had only ever had the blood of babes, those abandoned or neglected as their parents work, or young children still too young to realize what was happening, and they were capable of seeing me as no more than a streak of silver light before their souls were spared the torment of living this life. They were so pure, so… yes, _pure _that they could not comprehend an evil such as myself. And then, as I was thinking about the blood of someone older, someone who had more blood, hoping that it would prove to be just as sensual and precious as those of the toddlers I had sipped on for years, I came upon a young woman filling a jug of drinking water at a spring.

"She was… beautiful. From today's perspective, physically, she was most unappealing. Her hair was greasy blonde, her clothes unbecoming on her form, but oh, from the mental perspective, I had never seen anyone that filled me with such longing. Her body was hard from work, her mind was clear and focused, devoid of meandering thoughts, yet she still had this small perspective of a dreamer, wondering as she looked down at the water what it must be like on the other side of the mirrored surface. Her dreams had logic.

"Without a moment of hesitation, I lunged for her. The pot cracked and shattered on the rocky ground as I pinned her down. I tore the clothes away from her as I tried to get to her throat, tried to get a clear path without grabbing the leather clothes instead of her tender flesh. Her blue eyes became filled with this kind of fear, but she still did resist. She clawed at me, bit me, wrestled with me as I tried to keep her still, but I was superior to her in every way, and I won.

"I bit her neck, and she screamed in pain. The blood flowing into my mouth was not as strong as what I had been used to, but it was… indescribable. It was _aged_. It was more… sophisticated; it wasn't more filling or stronger, but it was a taste that would take some acquiring, and I liked it. Because there was a flavor to it. Oh, the blood I had been drinking before could keep me going for a month on one feeding, but it was like eating bark. This had flavor to it; wonderful flavors like fear that made me tongue tickle and my lips burned as I drank every bit of it I could.

"As I pulled away, her heart slowing, she grabbed my hair, and she stared up at me with such hatred that I have never seen anything like it before. She didn't say a word, but as she died, a strange feeling passed over me, as if something final had just been written and set into stone, completely and utterly irreversible, and it frightened me. Even in death, the look of hatred would not leave form her face, and her dead blue eyes followed me from the site of her resting place, haunting me for years afterwards.

"Many years later, I was walking down the street, minding my own business, when I felt someone staring at me. I turned and found a young girl staring up at me, with a look of defiance in her eyes that would normally have caused me to become irate, but on her… there was also such an expression of hatred that I was shocked, deep down. I had done nothing to this little girl, yet she was radiating deep hatred. I bent down to her level, perhaps to give her a reason to hate me, perhaps to turn her into one of, I cannot say for certain now that all these centuries have passed. Before I could act, she rushed at me with a stick in her hands, and tried to plunge it into my chest."

"That's how you got the scars on your face, then, from the branches of the stick!" Inuyasha exclaimed in an awed voice.

Sesshomaru nodded in a practiced and cultured manner. "Yes. It is the only wound I have ever sustained and still bear. In that moment when my blood touched her skin, when she held the weapon at my chest and tried to force her little human body to do more, I recognized her as the same soul that had first wetted my appetite for human blood other than the pure blood of the innocents.

"Seizing her, I took her to a dark alleyway and I bit her. This time, she died without fighting me back, willingly accepting her death, and even allowing it. As her soul was once again pulled into the afterlife, I felt her mind touch mine briefly, and then, my muscles began to shake. I felt like I was losing energy, like I hadn't fed for weeks and could barely sustain my own existence. I had not experienced such a feeling in a long time, and even now when I think back on that first instance, I remember the sickening feeling of my own fear.

"She copied my powers, drew on my strength a little and tied it to her own soul. I do not know how many times she was reincarnated before I began to hear stories of a human girl who had strength enough to throw people into the walls, to change her appearance slightly, walk without a sound, stalk, play with the shadows, use telepathy, and copy a power from a simply touch."

Miroku gulped. They had touched. They had touched a lot. And then, that feeling from the first time he had killed a Slayer, that was normal? What power had she taken from him? What did she know that was buried in his mind?

Inuyasha was the one who said it first. "Then, Sango has been reincarnated, and is really as old you, Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Just about," was the gruff reply. He turned to look at his elder child. "That is why you will never succeed in turning her into a vampire, Miroku. She will be reincarnated until all the vampires of the world are dead, and she will never become one herself. She would rather choke on your blood."

Sesshomaru was rather surprised to find that Miroku was icy with cold. While he looked relaxed before Sesshomaru had told him about the Slayer, Miroku had now became taught, and—Sesshomaru could scarce believe this was the right word to be using—_human_ looking. Miroku's expression reminded Sesshomaru of the time when Miroku was a vampire still relying on his humanoid emotions, and how he would just about sulk whenever he felt misunderstood.

He flung the pillow against the bed and stood up quickly. "Maybe she'd rather choke on _your_ blood," he sneered, "but as far as I'm not concerned, there's not much difference between Sango and I." Miroku took off into his bedroom and was not seen for the rest of the night, nor the following day.

-

Sango fell asleep that night cursing Miroku, curled up in fetal position and holding her stomach in one hand and her pillow in the other. Her hair falling around her, her blankets heavy and comforting in the cold of night, she shivered as she remembered the way Miroku seemed so sweet during their brief fight.

'What's he up to?' she wondered, covering her yawn with her pillow. Her eyes drifted closed. 'To be so nice to me… he has to be up to something…'

_The music was jarring to Sango's senses, but she could put up with it. After all, she was a girl on a mission. Thinking of her mission, she patted down her tight leather pants to make sure they were still stretched out, wrapping around legs that could have put her on the cover of Playboy within half a second. Her fingers drifted over the silver button of her pants to turn her belly button charm the right side up. Her chest was bound so tightly in the dark blue corset that she could barely breathe; or was it the mission that made her forget her body needed air?_

_Twirling her choker's tail nervously, Sango sat up on the barstool, her lidded eyes searching through the crowd as she demurely stared at the drink in her other hand. She took a sip of her Coke, careful not to disturb the lip gloss she wore that turned her mouth into a natural pout._

_Brushing her hair over her shoulder, she picked up the cherry that was sliced to sit on top of her Coke. Looking up, she just chanced to see him, his muscular hands over some other girl as they danced. The woman's neck was tilted back in ecstasy as they danced, her thighs tightly connected with his, and his lips kissed the skin her low shirt exposed. Dancing, twirling to the grinding speed of the music, his eyes lifted from his latest toy to look at her, and his eyes widened, darkening to the same black of Sango's pants. His head rose next, his body still swaying with the woman in his arms, but now his gaze was spinning, twirling, trying to stay focused on her._

_Laughing, Sango rose her glass as a cheer, but it was the cherry that met her lips, and she watched him swallow with great difficulty as she slowly pulled the cherry stem back out of her mouth, a knot clearly located dead center. Flipping her long hair back over her shoulder, she turned away from him and made some idle comment to the man sitting next to her. The man dancing meant nothing to her, or so he would assume._

_She heard the woman say something, heard his footsteps over the pounding music as he came to her side. His hand gripped her shoulder, and he pulled her around in the stool. She could barely even make sure it was him before he suddenly dove down and pressed his lips against hers. His other hand wrapped around her waist, pulling her down so that she was half off of her seat. His tongue ran over the roof of her mouth, his kiss softening so that when he stopped and looked down at her, there was a hint of a smile on his cultured face._

_She slid off her seat, standing to face him. Grabbing his dark shirt, she began to drag him into the dance area, giggling and smiling. It was fun, playing with matches. He was so strong. His tight shirt, made from light material, showed off the lines of his stomach muscles. He was so strong! He could snap her in half if he wanted, but by the time she was done with him, he wouldn't want to do a thing to harm her. Those teeth would mean absolutely nothing by the time she was done with him._

_'Combat Baby' blared as she began to pull at the silk laces that held together her corset. His body was straining to reach out and touch her, but the crowd of people kept him from getting close. She undid them infuriatingly slowly, dancing at the same time, showing off all her curves for him; and no one else took any notice._

_With a roar of fury, he tore through the crowd of people and his hands touched her. They were warm to the touch. They gripped her shoulders, and then slid around to the back of her body, pressing against her back. Sango let out a tiny sigh of pleasure, upset that her playtime had been interrupted. Then his lips touched her cheek, down to the collarbone. His breath was light on her skin, but she was painfully aware of it. His lips moved across her jaw line, trying to reach the sensitive skin of her neck. His hands rubbed her ass, trying to feel every inch of her. Her hands still lay on her shoulders, enjoying the muscle underneath, amazed at how strong and gentle he could be._

_After a few more kisses, he snarled, and carefully tugged on her hair enough so that she leaned back her head, exposing her neck to him. She winced slightly, but she moaned louder, encouraging his movements as he attacked her neck with hot, wet kisses. Dragging his teeth across the skin, Sango felt herself shiver. She could not forget that no matter how careful his kisses were, no matter how he never caused her injury, he was still a wild animal. He was snarling as he pushed her down, his lips covering her skin fervently, his hands trying to unpeel her clothes from a body covered in a fine layer of sweat. _

_The people faded into the darkness, but the music still remained, pounding in her head. She felt soft mattresses hold her legs still as he straightened to see her better. Sango only smiled. _

_She longed for his touch, longed for the way it made her body ache for more, feeling as if a fire had started to burn between her legs and the only way to extinguish it was to die and be reborn like a phoenix._

_Taking his earring between her teeth, she played with it teasingly, her hands sneaking up under his tight shirt to brush his taught muscles with her fingernails. He let out a moan of pleasure, and Sango chanced a look at the bed behind her. It was large, with black satin sheets. They felt cold to her skin after his touch. Pillows were braced against the headboard, and she wondered how long it would take him to close the curtains on the four poster bed, giving them a den for the sex she knew was coming._

_Growling again when she accidentally bit him, he pushed her back on the bed. Touching his ear and finding blood, the man with dark eyes smiled. It was a cruel grin, but Sango didn't care at all. She was just as cruel deep down._

_Pushing her down, he kissed the breasts revealed by her shirt, and bit through the remaining cables that bound her clothes together. He threw what was left of the corset across the room. Smiling down at his prize, he leaned down, as if to kiss her breasts again, but he only licked one of her nipples, his hands already playing with her pants. On the bed, Sango made a sound of disapproval. _

_He pulled off her pants, grinning all the while, and he pulled off her underwear, leaving her naked on the bed. He breathed in deeply, his senses indulging in their combined sweat, in her arousal, in her fear and lust. Ah, lust. It was the only emotion he found more inviting than fear. Crawling on the bed, he kissed her body, moving up to her breasts. Taking her nipple into his mouth, he toyed with it carefully, watching her head tilt back and her muscles stretch as he played with her further._

_Hunching over her, he reached down, rubbing up and down, stroking her. Sango opened her mouth to make a sound, to make some kind of release from the pleasure he was causing, but then she stopped herself. There would be no crying out. She didn't want him to think her body was inferior to his. Her hands could almost have put holes into the sheets. He leaned over her, licking her ear as he whispered to her. "Do you want it?"_

_"Yes," Sango moaned, her eyelids fluttering as he movements became more gentle, his fingers just avoiding the spots that would make her cry out in ecstasy. How she wanted it!_

_She heard him move, and yet, she felt his fingers still touching her. She felt his mind wrap around hers, whispering in a midnight voice all the things he'd do to her to make her shiver in happiness, to make her hoarse from praising him. And she felt him touch her. She felt his mouth over hers at the same time that she felt his lips on her neck. She'd left herself physically and mentally open to him, and she was picking up on all the thoughts he was broadcasting, all the things he wanted to do to her._

_But when his hands pulled hers over her head, they were real._

_When she felt fabric wrap around her wrists, that was real._

_When she heard him laugh at her predicament, at the way her chest was heaving, her breath coming out in pants, calling for him as she was being driven insane from all the sensations she felt, that was real._

_And Sango didn't care._

_She opened her eyes to find her arms tied to the bed posts with pieces of silk cord. They were so skillfully wrapped that even if she wanted to break them, all they would do is tighten around her wrists until she shattered her own bones. Then she saw the look in his eyes as he threw his shirt to the floor, mingling with her clothes. His dark eyes were ravenous, his sculpted mouth turned up into a smile that bordered on a sneer. He'd unbound his hair, and it framed his chin, framed the muscles of his shoulders. His skin rippled like a predator's as he pulled off his pants, where they joined the discarded clothes. Sango gulped as his body began crawling over hers._

_She let out a little gasp of surprise. His tongue licked her lips, licked her chin. Sango felt like she was going to die from pleasure. She licked him back, suckling on his neck. "_Please_."_

_She felt his chuckle as he wordlessly agreed to her plea. He moved against her, teasing her. But he, at least, got pleasure from this, and he moaned loudly, arching his back. Sango growled, getting angry. "You sadistic bastard."_

_"You flatter me," he grinned, sliding himself into her a bit further. He captured her bottom lip with his teeth, speaking around it as his tongue danced with the pink flesh. "You look beautiful when you're angry, my little Sango. And you're all tied up. It's like a wonderful present." His grin was so beautiful it hurt to look at it. _

_Imagine, having rough sex with somebody who could actually handle all of your own strength… But she snarled at him, playing along for the moment. "Prick."_

_"Bitch."_

_"Slut."_

_"Wench."_

_"You… oh." Sango's insult turned into a moan of pleasure when his mind again wrapped around hers caressingly. This was unlike any torture she'd ever known. Her breath was ragged as she tried to focus on what was real, ignoring the way his mental self continued to touch and taste her. _

_He reached over and undid the cords that bound her, and Sango stretched beneath him luxuriously. Satin had never felt so good before. His fingers danced along her skin as he sat back. It was becoming very hard to tell what was real and what wasn't. Was it the feathery feeling of his fingertips tracing her muscle that was real, or was it the lips that made warm breath race over her chin? _

_She stared up at him as he rocked back and forth, watching his chest move with each breath and they way his eyes were closed peacefully, as if he were sleeping. He was so concentrated on the feeling of her, on the feeling of how tightly she fit around him, remembering what it was like to feel heat as her body surrounded him again and again. _

_In and out. Harder. Faster. Higher. Lower. Faster. Miroku pushed in and out of her, his hands flat against her pelvic bone to keep her from moving anywhere. He snarled now and then and snapped at her neck, always keeping her unaware of what was going on. His mental powers settled over her to keep her from seeing even if her eyes were open, they kept whispering to her, as he gave her the sensations he couldn't give her while he was busy concentrating on their bodies meeting, retreating and meeting. He could taste her skin and lips on his mouth, hear her breath in his ears. He was everywhere, leaving nowhere safe, no section of her mind safe._

_She was helpless, and they both loved it. Miroku picked up speed again, surprised that she wasn't hurting, surprised that she had lasted so long. Most women would have crumbled long ago, their senses overpowered by the feeling of his body, his hands, his mouth, and his silver tongue. Her body shook, her muscles pulsing with each sigh and moan, each cry to god she made. Miroku felt his body shake as well, his throat hurting from the encouraging sounds he was making, his body burning from the energy he was expending, while Sango still gripped her hands on the pillows behind her, climaxing to a delirious high._

_And he struck._

_His fangs first, his lips and body second, he aimed at her throat. She was pushed back on the bed, still feeling him inside her, still lost in the soothing waves of pleasure. She didn't feel a thing when his teeth pierced her flesh, she didn't feel her blood start to fall from the wounds, all she felt was his lips on her neck, and soothing warmth from everywhere._

_When she did become aware that he was feeding from her, Sango was so immersed in happiness that all she had was a fleeting worry, and then she became lost in the warmth of their melting bodies._

"NO!"

Sango bolted upright, flinging the pillow she had been clutching across the room. She threw it with such force that it broke the mirror. The first thing Sango did was throw off the covers and run to the mirror, searching her neck for signs of a vampire bite. She had to pretend that her legs really would walk, that she didn't feel hoarse from moaning, or that she wasn't still caught up in the aftermath of the greatest orgasm she'd had in… in any of her lives. Her first one, period.

She had to pretend that when she'd looked at the Miroku from her dream, she hadn't lusted for him, she hadn't been attracted to him, she hadn't wanted to put herself in that position, where she was completely at his mercy.

It was just a dream.

But Sango felt it had been something more.

Even though she couldn't find any marks on her neck, she couldn't return to bed that night. Sango sat in a chair with the most mundane book she could find and stayed up to watch the sun rise.

She stayed up all night trying to pretend she wasn't attracted to the vampire with the charming smile, with the ebony eyes, with the roguish grin and sharp mind.

And Miroku woke up pretending that he hadn't just dreamt about having sex with a woman he was supposed to kill.

-To Be Continued


	15. Poisoned Inuyasha

AN: As with C&U, for those of you who are following it, I'm updating for Christmas: two chapters, for you to read at your leisure, to tide you over until early January. I wish that I could have given you more of the MS you seem to love, but you'll have to be satisfied with learning about Seeshomaru and Inuyasha little bit more. Personally, the next chapter makes me want to hug Inuyasha, but that's just me.

Aamalie: FYI, I finished writing the Sesshy vs Sango… it sucked. I wrote it on four hours of sleep. I'm going to improve it when I go through that chapter with my trusty red pen. But there's a happy ending, just like I promised. A very happy ending.

Blood Red Emerald: Who says it was hers? She and Miroku were sharing a dream, after all!

Lily Thorne: I never really go into it. So let's just say, for argument's sake, that their dreams just start mingling of their own accord and make a brand new dream-world.

Demon: What's the title of the song? I want to hear this music that you think fits so well with the scene.

Queenizzay: What can I say? I love plot twists.

Starzki: I'm afraid that I don't think that I can tope the last chapter in terms of "near-lethal chemistry", but there will be actual fluff. Oh, how there will be developing fluff and camaraderie between Sango and Miroku!

Furi: The idea if Inuyasha yelling at the television like that came from me playing video games. I am potty mouth at video games.

Siren: If you like Sesshomaru, wait until you see what he was like before he started getting along with Inuyasha!

Corisu: You are needed! You are needed! You people are what's keeping me from feeling insignificant in class! You guys make me think all the words I've picked up and all the small means of manipulation I've learned are actually worth something! And I am glad that you enjoyed the chapters, though I apologize for the hair follicles you hurt in the process.

Chadirific: I'd drink it in a second.

Ninalee-chan: You'd think so, wouldn't you? Sesshomaru does love his children, I'll admit that, but he isn't exactly the loving father type. He's a cold hearted bastard in this fic, through and through. It's all an act. Everyone of them—Inuyasha, Sesshy, and Miroku—all put on this act to make it look like they are a loving family, but if it came down to one of them over one of their kin, they'd kill their kin to survive. And then there's Miroku… ::smiles stupidly:: What can I say about Miroku? What can anyway say about him? Thinking if that stupid little cute smile he as _always_ makes me feel better!

**Enjoy, and Merry Festivus!**

**Chapter Fifteen:**

**Poisoned Inuyasha**

Wednesday, September 28th, 8 am

Unable to sleep, distraught by his dreams, Miroku wandered into the kitchen. He grabbed a cold plasma bag and dug his teeth into it before he realized that Sesshomaru was sitting at the kitchen table, studying the papyrus parchment Rin had found. He pulled up a seat beside Sesshomaru. "There's two other pieces of the spell. I don't know if it's even possible to find them, if they're ancient. Chances are the pieces are destroyed. It wouldn't interest you anyway."

"Probably not," he agreed. Sesshomaru carefully folded the paper back up, and folded it away into the jade box. He folded his hands on the table and stared at the box, fully away of Miroku without needing to look at him. "But being able to walk in sunlight would be beneficial to my children, and it would be a good reward for those of you who obey my rules. Like you, Miroku. Inuyasha too, if he could kill that little witch."

"You know about that, then?"

The tall man nodded. He ran his fingertips over the carvings of the box. "So, what is it that troubles you enough not to sleep? A nightmare?"

Miroku was about to agree that it was a nightmare, but remembered at the last second that he might be able to lie to Inuyasha, but he could not do so with Sesshomaru. His sire would know he was lying as soon as the first word was out of his mouth. Sesshomaru was so good at reading auras that he could perceive the emotions of a blade of grass. So Miroku stuck with the vague truth. "Not a nightmare. It was a fantasy about the Slayer, an intense one."

His sire arched an eyebrow all of a millimeter to indicate his interest. "I hope that you have not fallen into the same trap as Inuyasha, beginning to have feelings for people who are inferior to us. Though at least the Slayer is a better choice than some witch."

"No, it was not some fluffy fantasy. She was tied down to the bed. Her blood flowed into my mouth, but before I could change her or kill her, I woke up. I didn't want to, and I don't think I snapped immediately awake, the dream just ended when she let me bite her."

Sesshomaru's frown increased. He turned to look at Miroku. "I don't like the sound of this at all, son. She let you bite her. You didn't hunt her, she _let_ you do it. And she was tied down. I would almost have preferred that you were the one being tied down and it was some sick fantasy about finding a woman strong enough to hurt you, the same way you could snap her neck with a flick of your hand. Don't you know? The person tied down has all the power. You were… you were the equivalent of being her bitch."

Bristling with stripes of anger, Miroku finished off the blood and tossed the empty bag into the garbage. "That's just from your point of view. It was torture. I've been able to pick up a bit on the Slayer's thoughts. She hates being out of control, physical control." He was silent, thinking. Miroku didn't want to pick a fight with the vampire elder. "I had never had such a real dream. It was so realistic, I could smell her fear on her skin. So, why are _you_ up?"

He was quiet. His voice was a little quieter when he spoke, giving the illusion of having a softer voice. "I was up thinking. Normally, I have no problem with sentencing vampires to death when they break my rules, but this is different. When I found Inuyasha, I had such high hopes for him, and now I found my hard work and my hope for a stronger vampire being ruined by an adolescent witch. Not even an older one, one that I could believe had captured Inuyasha's interests with magic, or perhaps a dark witch that wanted a vampire as a night-partner, to fight with and to give her the bed-side companionship that only heartless people like ourselves can give.

"No, I had to lose her to some saint-eyed witch that corrupted his mind to the point that his thoughts of her hang in the air like pictures that I can perceive. Blue eyes, black hair, a fine facial structure. And power. Ah, the power. At least Inuyasha didn't pick a weak woman to dote upon."

Miroku had felt the ground fall from under him when Sesshomaru had first spoken. He had warned Inuyasha that this was going to happen if Inuyasha didn't do something, and now it was too late. Miroku turned slightly in his chair, and he looked at Inuyasha's bedroom door. The sight of the mental signature on it, the smell coming from it, the sounds of Inuyasha tossing in his sleep, they were so familiar! Miroku had shared a house with Inuyasha for the past five hundred years. He couldn't believe that Inuyasha hadn't heeded his advice…

"Inuyasha has disobeyed our laws by falling in love with a mortal and revealing our face and name to them, and then not killing them. He _has_ toyed with her though, and his strength cannot be denied. He's younger than I, but just as strong. I don't know, even if you did order me to do it, that I could take down Inuyasha." Miroku's voice quieted, and he choked on the rest of the words.

_Inuyasha is my family. More family than you, Sesshomaru._

"I had perceived this. Perhaps I erred in giving such a strange soul to your care, Miroku, it's just that you fit together so well. Then again, perhaps that was the problem. You two generated too much feeling for each other. You, for being one of my direct children, you have far too much humanity in you. Inuyasha, because he was human when we first started to raise him. I will make the choice easy for you, Miroku. If you do not kill him, I will. And if you do not kill him, when I am done with him, I will kill you."

"And what about the human witch?" His Adam's apple bobbed in his tight throat, and he still stared at Inuyasha's door.

Sesshomaru was considerate, watching Miroku as closely as Miroku watched the aura leaking from around the bedroom door. "I will take care of her also. I have my own plans for her, but Inuyasha must still be punished. We will give ourselves one week to debate upon this subject. I do not want to needlessly lose two of my favorite children, especially two as good a team as you and Inuyasha." He placed a clawed hand on Miroku's shoulder, and stood up. His voice was cold, but Miroku could trace up a base amount of sadness in his aura. "I will never say this again, Miroku. You and Inuyasha, of all the children I have ever made, are my two favorite males. You, are the son of my mind, as intelligent and cunning as I. Inuyasha, is my son of my body, looking just like me, and he possesses my ruthlessness."

As he left the loft, Sesshomaru sighed, and looked up at the sun. Inuyasha and Miroku were the sons he would never have, and fine vampires he could never replace. If only he had known where they had both gotten their streaks of kindness!

-

Kagome sat in English class, bored as Ms. Kikyo Umbra lectured to them. Her eyelids started to flutter, and she tried very hard not to fall asleep. She couldn't fall asleep in English class! Since the cold woman had taken over the class, it had become infinitely difficult. Kikyo lectured, and the next day they had a quick quiz about the subject the day before. If you missed one class, you were sunk. She especially needed to stay awake because if she stopped talking notes, then what would poor Sango and Kouga use when they returned to school and were faced with fourteen quizzes in a row?

But in all fairness, it wasn't the dreary and depressing weather outside that made Kagome want to take a little nap, or even the subject matter. It was the painkillers. Kagome didn't respond well to drugs. She was only taking non-drowsy, extra strength Tylenol, but she felt like she could sleep for a whole day straight. She figured she was too accustomed to the natural remedies her mother made for upset stomachs or headaches. They were delicious. Hot and frothy and flavored with cinnamon or mint, or cold and sweet like spiced apple juice.

And then, there was always the fact that she hadn't slept a wink the night before.

She had told Inuyasha once that she would love him despite the things he had done, or the things he would do. She hadn't been using her powers to read cards or palms when she spoke of things he would do. Kagome had truly believed Inuyasha when he had said that he would no longer kill. She spoke only of how he would kill _her_. It was very hard to tell someone you were forgiven from beyond the grave.

Now she wanted to know; she wanted to know what else he had done in his long life, and she wanted to know it straight from his lips.

Finding him, of course, was the problem…

BRING!

Kagome's head snapped up at the sound of a cell phone going off. All the students were looking around, trying to find the source of the sound. Kagome glanced down at the knapsack under her desk. It wasn't her phone, was it? Of course, that wasn't her cell phone ring (she had it set to 'Sakura Saku' from 'Love Hina'), she was just a bit paranoid about getting into trouble.

Everyone was surprised when Kikyo answered her cell phone. She turned away from the class to look out the window at the grey sky, and her voice sounded a bit mad at being interrupted in school. "Hello?"

"Kikyo?" The voice was male.

"It's Ms. Umbra to you. What are you doing phoning me at school?"

"Jesus Christ," said the chief cop, sounding frazzled. "If you didn't want to be called at school, why did you leave your cell phone on, Miss Umbra? Besides, you did say that you wanted to find out the results of the DNA test we did on some of residue on the skin, and on that hair you found."

"And?"

"You're not going to believe this. I'm running the test again, in case there was some mistake. We weren't able to find a match on the databases. So, out of curiosity, we printed out the DNA, you know, on one of those graph things? There was some shit on there that we'd never seen before, but we could pick out some of the details. The attacker was definitely male. He's got the good old Y chromosome. But the other stuff on here, we couldn't figure out what it was.

"Except for Benny. He wanted to be a scientist when he was younger, and was interested in that crazy idea of trying to bring back extinct animals. It's been a long time since he read one of these graphs, but he said that it looked a bit like a wolf, or a dog. So we sent it over to some of the guys in the city, and sure enough, they sent back the same thing. Canine DNA."

"And there's no chance of this being cross contamination?" Kikyo asked, wanting to be sure before she contacted her superiors.

"No. I mean, maybe if it was the saliva, and we had accidentally mingled two samples some how or something… Kikyo, this was from the hair that you found. It looks like your body was killed by the fucking wolf man."

She silent, and then thanked the police chief. Kikyo flipped her phone shut without even saying goodbye. She stared out the window, thinking quietly to herself, her lips moving as she thought.

"Hey!" one of the students complained, bringing her out of her moody thoughts. "Hey, how come you get to answer the phone, and we don't?"

"Because this was part of the police investigation," Kikyo answered calmly. Her brown eyes focused on the student's face, and the boy felt a chill sweep down on him. "Do you really want to make a big deal out of this?"

"No…."

There were a few other whispers of complaints. Kagome's voice was not one of them. She was frozen to her seat, staring at the window. She had seen the reflection of Kikyo as she stood there thinking. Kagome didn't know what the phone conversation was about, but she had seen Kikyo's mouth move, and she had seen the hatred in her eyes when she whispered a single word.

'Inuyasha.'

-

Hearing her teacher say Inuyasha's name settled things for Kagome. She needed to talk with him, and she needed to talk with him as soon as possible. She wanted to know everything about his past, a past Inuyasha had never been too willing to share, and she especially wanted to know how Kikyo was a part of it. However, Kagome didn't know how to find Inuyasha. He had always come to find her, surprising her at every turn. How did one go about finding a man half a millennia old?

There was one person she could ask. The Slayer, of course, would know how to find a vampire. But that would mean she would have to explain stuff to her, she would have to explain exactly why it was important she talk to Inuyasha. As much as Kagome loved Sango, as much as she respected her, she thought of this as a lover's quarrel, and that thought did make her heart beat a little faster, she had to admit. A lover's quarrel between her and Inuyasha… No, Kagome didn't want to invite Sango into this problem. Especially if she accidentally let it slip that Inuyasha was the one who had killed Kuranosuke…

Sango would get jealous.

So, at dusk, Kagome told her mother she was going out for a walk. She walked to the shop they owned, and she very carefully climbed up to the roof of the short building. Kagome wished she could find a taller building, but this one was secluded, which was better than a taller, busier building. After climbing up to the roof, she sat down on the rough gravel and held her sides, pain coloring the back of her eyelids and she tried to regain her breath. Perhaps climbing up to the roof while she was injured was silly, but she needed to talk to Inuyasha, and to do that she would do whatever she had to.

Eventually, the pain dimmed down to a manageable level, and she was able to catch her breath. Kagome unpacked her knapsack, arranging everything she needed to make the little beacon. She lit the tapered candles, and in the shallow bowl, she dropped a few beads of her own blood, fresh from a pinprick on her finger. Sitting cross-legged, trying hard not to wince. She whispered the name of she wanted to try and find.

"Inuyasha."

Then Kagome Higurashi leaned back, and waited.

-

Wednesday, September 28th, 9 pm

"Look, you have to take care of her, Inuyasha, or Sesshomaru will, and we all know that whatever he has planned for her won't be pleasant."

Inuyasha ignored Miroku, and kept sulking as they waited for their prey to become so engrossed in each other that they couldn't hear him approach. He drew his red cotton shirt closer to himself, trying to keep his dead body warm. "I don't care. He can kill her. I can't do it, Miroku. Every time I get close to her, I want to do become a better person, want to make myself better so that I can touch her without feeling like I'm ruining something beautiful. She makes me feel guilty for the things I've done, and at the same time she gives me hope that I can become… _more_."

Miroku couldn't argue with that. He had seen some of the things Inuyasha had done, firsthand. He knew Inuyasha had good reason to be guilty for his past. At least Miroku was sheltered by the fact that he had done things in the name of justice or science. Inuyasha had only one excuse: he had been raised by vampires. To those who had never met Sesshomaru, or had never seen Miroku before he had begun to run out of anger and curiosity, they would never understand why that was an acceptable excuse.

"You _have_ done some pretty horrible things, but why the hell do you have to feel guilty for them? What does feeling guilty do? It doesn't do anything. You can't change the past. You have to accept the things you have done, and that you can't change them."

He was quiet. Miroku was right; Miroku was always right. He wasn't able to change the things he had done, he was only able to try and keep from making the same mistakes again. The problem was that his nature drove him to do them, to laugh as people crumbled and he was victorious, to kill to feed, these things were his nature. Of course, that same nature had good points, he just wasn't a hundred percent sure what they were yet.

The breeze ruffled his hair, cold across his cheeks. He thought he heard his name on it, coming from somewhere far away and yet close. Inuyasha turned to Miroku, who didn't seem to feel the arctic chill at all. "Did you hear that?"

"Hm? Hear what? Her calling out another guy's name?" He pointed to the couple gratuitously making out.

"No," Inuyasha replied, his white ears flickering slightly. "Unless she called out my name. I thought I heard someone calling me."

Miroku looked at him dubiously. Was Inuyasha all right? Maybe Kagome, despite her youth, really _was_ strong enough to mess with his head… "You just imagined it," Miroku consoled in the pitiless way males had. "Nobody here but me knows your name, and my senses are just as good as yours, so if someone who knew you had showed up, I would have heard."

Another breeze came, and this time Inuyasha smelled blood. Sweet, rich, young blood; the blood of a witch, blood that he had dreamed of tasting again. The air was a flow of it, and he heard his name again, whispering through the moving trees. Kagome. Kagome was in danger, Kagome was calling out to him. He stood up in the trees, and glanced at Miroku over his shoulder. "I have to go. Something came up."

And he vanished into the darkness.

Miroku sighed. Inuyasha was off to rescue his Lady Fair.

The poor boy was doomed.

Now the only question was whether or not Miroku would allow himself to get pulled down with his pack-mate.

-

When she heard him touch down, Kagome spun around. Inuyasha was crouched on the corner of the roof like a gargoyle, his head low and his muscles tight. His nose wavered up and down as he sniffed the air, his ears swiveled to each sound, and his eyes glowed between his bangs, making them look pale orange. His hair was pulled back loosely in an attempt to keep as much of it out of the way. Kagome knew he had been hunting, and she was uncertain which one she worried about more: had she been too late to save him from drinking blood from an innocent person, or would she become a victim by keeping him away from what his body needed?

Seeing that they were alone, Inuyasha eyed the candle and bowl on the roof, as well as the chalk circles that surrounded them and Kagome. "What is this?" His voice was rough, but Kagome could pick up the curiosity in it.

"It's just a calling spell. I wanted to talk, but I didn't know how to call you." She smiled at him and pulled out a covered box. Kagome held it out for Inuyasha, hoping he would come closer and take it. "Here. I know that you can eat human food, so I was wondering if you wanted to try some of my cooking."

Inuyasha didn't look like he wanted to try it.

Sighing, Kagome put down the box a ways from her, so that he didn't have to get close to her to try it if he wanted. The thought that Inuyasha might think it was burned to a crisp or poisoned had never occurred to her. Kagome just thought she had pushed him away, and now he didn't want to get close to her incase she hurt him. She tried to get comfortable on the roof, her body starting to ache. Kagome wanted to go back home and lay down with a book, or maybe take a bubble bath. "I thought of a hundred ways to start thins conversation, and none of them seemed right."

Inuyasha simply watched her and listened. Human beings _were_ weak. If Kagome had accepted his blood, then she wouldn't still be sore. Inuyasha could somehow feel her injuries in the air, and the smell of the blood coming from the bowl, though only a few drops, were overpowering to him. That was why he didn't get close to her; it made him hungry. And, deep down, Inuyasha was a little wary of Kagome.

"That's because language is overrated. Feelings, pictures, thoughts, those are the way that things should be said. Language is so limited, no matter how expansive one's vocabulary."

She looked a little surprised, and Inuyasha looked away. "My pack-mate taught me that. I always used to get tongue tied. Never do with him though, because I never need to explain myself to him. Even if he doesn't understand why, he understands what I'm doing and feeling."

"That's… actually, what I kind of wanted to talk to you about. I want to know about your past, Inuyasha. I want to know what your parents were like, why you became a vampire, everything." She wasn't going to bring up Kikyo. Hopefully Inuyasha would bring her up himself. Given the amount of hostility in the air when Kikyo said his name, Kagome wanted to avoid telling Inuyasha that she was back in town.

"I told you, talk is overrated, and I'd just screw it up," he growled. He looked away, sulking. "Besides, why do _you_ want to know anyway?"

"Because I… I…" Kagome stopped, and looked down at the ground. She chose her words carefully. "I want to know _you_, Inuyasha. I want to know what you've seen since you've been born, how you became a vampire and why. I want to know your real name, and everything else that you always kept from me, as if you were sheltering me. I once told Sango that I knew exactly what you were capable of. I thought I knew exactly how cruel you could be when you threatened me, threatened my mother, and threatened to take Souta from me, but that wasn't it, was it? You've done worse; far worse. And you regret it. I want to see just how deep your vampire side goes, and if I still want to kiss you or soar with you afterwards."

There was a long silence. Finally, Inuyasha turned back to look at Kagome. She was completely serious, with a gentle light in her eyes. He was still filled with bitterness. "And if you can't? What then? What if I tell you and you hate me for it, want to kill me for it?"

She thought. Kagome was certain that it could never be bad enough to want to kill Inuyasha for what he had done, but just to please him… She became just as serious. "Inuyasha, if it truly is that bad, then for all the things you have done, I will place a curse on you to ensure that everything you have ever done will come back to you and you will know what it will feel like to be completely and utterly vulnerable once again. The curse will take place the moment you kill me."

He opened his mouth to say that he would never hurt her, but he remembered that Sesshomaru was in town. Wasn't it better to kill Kagome, accept _her_ punishment, and save his pack-mate? After all, he had known his pack-mate for longer, and maybe this was his retribution. Maybe his beautiful Kagome was an angel, and would save his damned soul, in which case, Miroku still needed a chance to save his.

"Okay, but there's one condition."

"That condition being..."

He slid gracefully of the building's ledge, and walked closer to Kagome, not making a sound on the gravel rooftop. She swallowed a bit of fear, having forgotten just how impressive and commanding a presence Inuyasha could have at times. He squatted down next to her, no emotions readable on his face. Kagome corrected herself: _damned_ impressive at times. It was hard not to reach out and feel the electricity of his hair, or trace the outline of his mouth. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"We do this telepathically."

Kagome remembered the way that his voice had twisted and wound around her mind, finding a niche that seemed to have been made for him. It had been pleasant, and seductive in the way that all vampires had, and it had been excruciatingly hard. Her thoughts had been unprotected, while his were controlled. Inuyasha had been sending her only the things he wanted to hear, while he had been able to read all of her thoughts, no matter what the subject. Had he tried snuggling deeper, and had touched her subconscious… oh, the agony… and the pleasure. Every wish, every desire, every physical and mental need fulfilled because he knew everything she wanted.

She licked her lips in anticipation. Inuyasha's eyes followed the movement with frightening precision. He looked fierce and hungry, like a starving silver wolf, or a fairy bent on getting another soul with which to play. Her breath felt faster. "I don't know…"

"This will be different than before. I'm going to open myself up to you. You will be inside my head, and have free range of all my memories. I'll allow you that. I won't be able to pick up on any of your thoughts, because I will be inside mine as well. The thing with memories, is that when someone else—or even yourself—flips through them, you can't stop from reliving them."

Kagome was still trying to understand what he had said. "Wait. You're going to allow me to see all of your memories?"

"Yes."

Flabbergasted, she sputtered out: "Why? Don't you want some privacy kept? And I don't really know if I want to see _all_ of your memories! I mean, what happens if I find a private one… like finding one of you… realizing you were…" She felt her cheeks start to burn, and Kagome simply made an up and down hand gesture and a 'you know' eye gesture.

Inuyasha thought about it a second. "Oh! You mean masturbating!" He laughed at Kagome when her face went as red as a tomato. He simply shrugged. "Hey, it's a natural process. I'm certainly not ashamed of it, and it's not like I'm actually going to do it in front of you. Well, I am a bit ashamed of it, it's just that if you go into my memory, and find a locked one, aren't you going to be curious? Then you're going to feel like I wasn't being honest with you."

"But why would you even care if I thought that or not?"

His response was quick: "Because you're a bitch when you're angry, and I want _really_ don't want to piss you off." Kagome thought he was showing his softer side to her, until he sat down cross legged and snapped, "But I swear, Kagome, that if you go around telling other people the things I've done in my life, or tease me about them in anyway…." His growl was impressive enough to finish of his threat.

Kagome actually laughed a little, relaxing. It was so stereotypical Inuyasha, trying to be sweet and nice while at the same time he had to keep up his macho side, his reputation as a tough guy. Kagome saw nothing wrong with trying to be that, it was just that Inuyasha took things a little bit too seriously. He had no problem whatsoever taking that "tough guy" act to an extreme, and it was also uncontrolled. Instead of unleashing his anger on his enemies, he unleashed it on everybody, even those he had wanted to keep safe. Kagome wondered if all he needed was some direction in life.

"Your secrets will be safe with me, Inuyasha," she promised.

Inuyasha reached out and took her arms carefully. Helping her up, he moved out of the circles and he leaned against the lip of the roof. He slid Kagome down overtop of him, his leg between hers. Kagome's blue eyes were interested, but he could taste the first few wisps of fear coming off her body. Letting go of her arms, he raised his claws to his neck and nicked himself.

Kagome stared at the dark red blood rolling down his muscular neck, feeling a hunger inside her stomach that she had never experienced before. The hunger burned and churned, made her lips ache and tremble with ferocity. Her lungs suddenly seemed to be void of air, and the air was too thick to breathe. She felt aroused, longing to touch and be touched, to hear Inuyasha make sounds of pleasure.

She looked at Inuyasha, his lips darkening as he stared back at her. He was able to pick up on all of the things she was feeling. He had been there before; Inuyasha knew how vampire blood could be addictive to some people. He just had never thought that sweet innocent Kagome could fall victim to the malevolent power held within the blood of the undead. She was a witch; wasn't she supposed to get her power from life? Vampires were the very opposite of that; it was like she was addicted to poison.

"You're not telepathic, Kagome. By drinking my blood, we can establish a connection because of the intimacy of feeding. This is the only way I can show you my past, Kagome."

She nodded, and he was a bit surprised that to find despite how much she obviously wanted to taste his blood again, her cheeks blushed as she leaned down. The tip of her tongue traced the path of the blood that had already ran down his neck, cleaning it for him. Inuyasha made a sound of delight… accidentally, of course. Her warm lips closed around the wound, her teeth running over the flesh experimentally. Inuyasha closed his eyes, starting to fall back into his memories as her lips tightened around his neck, each pull she took from him sending him further and further back into his memories.

Kagome, on the other hand, felt his thick blood rush down her neck, and drank it down in hungry gulps. His blood warmed her, filled her with unimaginable power, and drowned her mind in pleasure. Each gulp sent _Inuyasha_, his very essence flowing into her. He tasted like pure silver, and was as crisp as fresh cold water. He growled under her, her hands tightening around him as she pressed her body against his, rubbing up and down like a large cat, feeling his hands guiding her as she found pleasure in him. Her head buzzed, and lightning crashed behind her eyes. Once again, she had switched places, leaving behind the Maiden and become the Hunter, fierce and territorial, the tamer of old wild beasts, strong and independent.

_"Hey! You!" The little boy with dark hair and wide brown eyes spun around, dropping the fruit he held. He was filled with terror, as the tall man ran towards him. Desperate, he grabbed the now bruised and dirty fruit, and spun around. The man behind him skidded to a stop. "Help! Someone catch that little boy! He's a thief!"_

_ He ran as fast as he could, which wasn't very well. He was scared of getting caught. He had seen what they do with thieves, and they wouldn't make an exception just because he was young. He wanted to run fast, to fly over the ground like a bird and leap like a wild horse, but he couldn't. The hunger in his stomach was too great. He was so hungry his fingers shook, and he could count each and every one of his ribs._

_ It looked like he was going to make it when a hand seized the back of his lice-infected shirt. In one swift movement, the brown-eyed boy was lifted off the ground. He dangled in the air, his legs kicking, his whole body straining to get away. He hollered in broken Japanese: "Let me go! Let me go! The fruit's rotting! He's not going to sell it anyway, it's just about garbage, so why can't I have it?"_

_ He spun around, dangling in the air, and came face to face with the prettiest man he ever had seen before. The man looked like he was a relative of the Emperor, and by doing so, he would have some god-blood in him. Maybe that would explain why his hair was stark white, his eyes like dark honey, and his skin as white and smooth as porcelain._

Kagome, when she saw those brown eyes fill with defiance, realized she was looking at Inuyasha when he was very young. She could feel how hungry he was, his fear and hate about living in the streets, and his disgust when he looked down at the mushy fruit in his hands… as well as his overwhelming sense of desire for it.

She was so concentrated on learning about Inuyasha that she entirely missed who the pretty man was, nor would she notice until much later.

_Inuyasha glared up at the man, his bottom lip and chin sticking out as he tried to appear impressive. "You can't have it! It's mine!"_

_ The man managed to smile softly. Somehow, he was able to do this without moving his lips or softening the look in his eyes. He set Inuyasha back down on the ground, but he didn't let go of his shirt. His voice was soft, but cold, though it gave the impression of being slightly warm for the young boy. "Do you know what happens to thieves?" he inquired._

_ The little Inuyasha nodded, his whole body trembling. He took the question as a threat, and he knew that the pretty man would surely punish him. He stuck out one of his arms. "There. Do what you have to do. But I'm _still_ keeping the fruit! He was just going to throw it out anyway! I'm not going to shy away from my punishment, but I want it to be done in private."_

_ Behind the pretty man, the merchant came running up. He was furious. "Thank you so much, sir." He tried to reach down and grab Inuyasha from the pretty man, already hissing threats, but the tall man stayed between Inuyasha and the merchant._

_ "How much was the fruit really worth?" he demanded in the cold voice that had not lost its edge despite the hazy memory._

_ Scratching his head, the merchant thought. "Well, it was in bad condition. I really was just going to throw it out. The point is though, that the boy took something that wasn't his, without permission, and without paying for it. Thieves should be taught a lesson!"_

_ "But if it was garbage," the pretty man continued, "couldn't you make an exception?" He lifted up Inuyasha's shirt to show how tiny he was. "The boy is starving. You just admitted that he was right, and that the fruit was going to go into the garbage. Couldn't you let him have it?"_

_ Something about the presence of the pretty man seemed to make the fat merchant feel nervous. He gave in, stammering. "I… I… suppose I could…"_

And that was how Sesshomaru met Inuyasha.


	16. In Which there are Many Flashbacks

**Chapter Sixteen: **

**In Which There is a Large Flashback**

Sesshomaru's gold eyes hungrily followed the merchant as he waddled back to his stall, still huffing and puffing from running after Inuyasha. Inuyasha stared up at him warily, clutching the half rotten fruit so hard that the liquid dribbled over his fingertips, making his fingers sticky. The tall man looked down at Inuyasha, slightly surprised to hear a warning growl coming out of the boy's throat. He smirked, and walked away, musing to himself.

He would never turn one so young, and it was a shame. Had he any inclination to do so, he might have felt the need to take in the little street urchin, and turn him into a vampire when he was of an older age. But, he had other needs to fulfill, and after all, he had plenty of children.

Inuyasha watched him to go, and then he ran away to the little hovel he called a home, a half collapsed wall in the dirtier area of home. He sat down, the rain that started to fall mostly held off his head by the collapsed beams, and as he wolfed down the oozing fruit, thinking it was the finest food on the face of the planet, rats ran over his unclad feet.

It was the only life Inuyasha had ever known.

It was a month later, during the colder, rainy season, that Sesshomaru was hunting through the city when he discovered that he was not the only one hunting. Pausing in the shadows, invisible to all, he watched the rats scurry across the street. Behind them, sitting calmly with his hands clawed and ready to pounce, was the little child he had met before. His frame was skinnier than he had last seen, his face older and fiercer, his eyes hopeless. Sesshomaru watched as the rats were oblivious to the presence of the boy, even when he began to crawl forward like a hunting animal, and he reached out to snatch one of them.

He felt disgusted. Vampires could feed off of rodents without much trouble, but was the boy seriously going to…. He watched, almost horrified, as Inuyasha brought the struggling rat to his mouth, the tiny animal screeching and trying to fight the way you of his grip. Smirking, Inuyasha snapped the rat's neck easily, and Sesshomaru then moved forward to take the lice-covered animal from Inuyasha, flinging it away.

"That was mine!" Inuyasha cried, jumping up and looking ready to cry and fight all at the same time. "What did you do that for?"

"Come with me," he said, and Inuyasha followed, though not of his own volition. He walked as if he was in a dream, and Sesshomaru was pleased with his new find.

Before he had admired the boy's will to fight, and his will to continue living. Though the desire to live was noble, it was easily corruptible. Many who would go to such extremes to live would easily become vampires to remain alive when they realized no matter how well they took care of themselves, eventually death would claim them. To fight, that was a quality that Sesshomaru admired, and many who would want to live and risked fighting had to be good at living, otherwise they would choose cowardice for a pathetic chance to see a sunrise the following day.

Inuyasha's hunting skills had testified to his ability to fight. He was stupidly quick, and silent, but perhaps those traits were more because of his starvation than an actual talent for fighting. After all, there's the speed of the quick, and then there's the speed of the dead. Inuyasha was already half dead, so why shouldn't he logically be that fast?

Then, that night, Sesshomaru had seen his bloodthirstiness and his pity. Inuyasha had been so hungry he would have eaten that rat still squeaking, but he could not do it. Pity was a useless emotion, and he knew he could weed it from out of Inuyasha's mind. He had, after all, already succeeded in creating many pitiless vampires. But what had made him change his mind about leaving Inuyasha to die in his hovel was the expression of Inuyasha's face. Though it had been a mercy killing, Inuyasha had thoroughly enjoyed it. For that one second, he had held that animal's life in his hands and he had enjoyed taking it from him. For that one second, instead of being some starving child in the streets of Japan, instead of being nobody, for that one second, he had been a God.

That was why Sesshomaru was taking him to Miroku.

-

Miroku awoke to a mental yell in his head so loud that he got a nosebleed. He sat up on his mat cursing furiously, still half-asleep. It wasn't his fault that he had missed the pounding at the door. It was the daytime! No vampire would ever be foolish enough to open the door in the middle of the day! Then again, no vampire was stupid enough _not_ to answer the door when it was Sesshomaru.

Wiping away at the bit of blood dribbling over his upper lip, he unlocked the front door and pulled it open a crack. Then he backed away from the quickly widening light as Sesshomaru walked in, a young child in tow. Miroku looked at the dirty boy, his bloody upper lip sneering. He still pawed away at the blood on his face. "If you're trying to bring me breakfast in bed, Sesshomaru, he's not my type."

"Clean him up," Sesshomaru said. "I want him to be presentable for when I return." Without another word, the vampire lord left, and the spell that had kept the small child from running away was broken.

His head whipped around, taking in the house he was in, and the man standing in front of him. He balled his fists. "What the fuck are you doing with me? Where am I?"

"Calm down," Miroku said gently. His melodious and deep voice was hypnotizing, as was the sight of him half-naked. The street urchin stared at his chest, and how handsome he was… and was jealous. Miroku got down on one knee to face the boy. "My master doesn't bring children home unless he sees potential in them and means to raise them. I can understand why he saw something in you that he liked. You're a little hellion, aren't you?"

"You're not human," the boy stated calmly. Miroku was surprised not just that the boy could handle this information so well, but that he would be so aware of it. He pressed on. "What are you? How did you get to be so big and strong? I want to be big and strong as well!"

He arched an eyebrow, interested. "Why?"

The boy was filled with sudden anger and passion. Spittle landed on the ground as he spat out the words. "People are _weak_! I hate them! They're cruel, and they are disgusting creatures! They… they… people are heartless! I hate them! I _hate_ them! _I hate everyone_!"

Miroku smiled, and led the boy to the washroom. The boy was quiet as Miroku cut his hair and washed his body. He was also relieved when Miroku said nothing about the lice he threw into the fire place, or the way the joints of his elbows and knees were disturbingly visible. He hated his body. He hated how weak and pathetic he looked. He hated himself. But, through it all, Miroku was making jokes, smiling and being… well, like a big brother.

"Say, what's your name, anyway?" Miroku asked as he dug through his belongings to find some clothes for the boy.

"I don't have one," the boy said plainly, shrugging his shoulders.

Even Miroku had to admit that this was a bit odd. "Don't you at least call yourself something? Everyone has name," he said.

"Well, not me."

Miroku smiled patiently as he found an old shirt that would suit the boy until they could get him some decent clothes. He handed it over to the naked boy, and also made a mental note that they would have to get him some decent food. He leaned back against the chest as he tried to figure out what to do about a name. He suddenly smiled, snapping his fingers. "Why don't we call you Daemon?"

He tried to say it, and said it clumsily. The boy frowned. "I don't like it. It sounds funny. What does it mean?"

"It's Greek. Greece is a land far away, which I have seen once or twice. It means 'spirit', but as of late people have been associating the word with the evil things in the world, with malevolent spirits from the underworld who consume human souls."

His brown eyes filled with glee at being given such a name, but he shrugged it off. "I can live with being called Daemon. You still haven't told me what your name is."

"My name is Miroku."

"Your name is funny too." Daemon laughed and pointed at him when he turned an indignant shade. "And now you look funny!"

Picking up Daemon, Miroku marched out into the living room and grabbed a book from off the shelf. He set it down on the table carefully and then dropped Daemon unceremoniously with a thump. "Turn to page one hundred and seventeen," he ordered, and Daemon was so surprised he began flipping through the pages, "and read the passage held therein."

Daemon paused, looking up. "What do you mean, _read_? I can't read."

Miroku stared at Daemon in shock. Sometimes, he forgot that some people were illiterate. Miroku sat down next to the small child. "Well then, I guess that teaching you to read will be a good place for you to start getting an education."

"Education?"

"I shall teach you mathematics, and languages, the sciences and the theologies… and Lord Sesshomaru will teach you to become strong, and control and feed the fire you exhibit within yourself. He has placed you in my care for one day, and so long as you remain under my roof, within my care, I will see to it that you will be fed, and clothed, and taught. I refuse to live with a barbarian."

Before he could start the lesson, Daemon looked up at Miroku again. Miroku had guessed that Daemon was probably eight, but he acted so much younger. "Miroku… you still have told me what you are."

"We will show you. Eventually, we will show you. But first, you must be ready."

"When will I be ready?"

"When Lord Sesshomaru decides you are. Now, this page talk about the Buddha…"

-

Sesshomaru came and went whenever he wanted, but Miroku and Inuyasha stayed together. Miroku taught everything he knew to Inuyasha, whether or not he remembered it at later dates. He taught Inuyasha knowledge, and logic, and how about life in general. Inuyasha took over making himself strong on his own. Before he was even a vampire, he was sleeping during the day and waking up at the first crack of dusk to practice with his katana.

Miroku took Inuyasha to his first play, and paid for a woman for the night to teach Inuyasha about sex when he was curious and began asking about females. Miroku was more than a big brother to Inuyasha, and never treated him roughly at all. Sesshomaru did that enough whenever he showed up.

"Why aren't you stronger? Weakling! You're still far too human!"

The verbal abuse was endless, but it only made him train harder. He always promised Sesshomaru that he would be stronger than Miroku, and eventually, he was. When he was sixteen, Sesshomaru decided that it was time Daemon, as he was then called, would have his last bit of training. It would be the hardest part of his training to become the warrior Sesshomaru had wanted, and was the darkest time of his life.

That night, they left the house as they always did, after the moon had fallen. He kept waiting for Miroku to tell him where they were going, but he never did. The parts of the city they walked through continued to become worse and worse, the houses turning from mansions into lean-to's. Sesshomaru indicated for Daemon to walk beside him, and he did so. Sesshomaru placed his large hand on Daemon's shoulder.

"You know much about us, Daemon. And yet you do not know everything. You do not yet know what we are." Daemon listened closely to Sesshoamru's hypnotizing words, to the weight of the hand on his shoulder. He couldn't hear Miroku anymore. Where was Miroku? "You don't yet know how we live. We are your namesake, Daemon. We are demons. We live off of human blood. We are, as your brethren is, judges of human life, deeming who lives and who dies. We are gods among men."

Daemon laughed, and then he was spun around to face Sesshomaru. He heard a bone crunch in the grip that had suddenly become crushing. The man had always been beautiful, but now he was heartbreakingly so. Daemon could feel his heart start to pump and his blood rush in his veins just be looking at him. His throat was parched. He felt ready to run for the first time in his life, rather than brashly fighting. He was terrified, and he loved it.

As Sesshomaru spoke, he found it impossible to tear his gaze away from the vampire's mouth, from those pale lips that seemed burgundy from blood, and that grazed against delicate silver fangs…

"We are gods; period."

He had been going to say that he didn't believe Sesshomaru, but how could he when he could see the truth staring him in the face? He struggled to find words, but found none. Daemon couldn't even find the energy to close his mouth.

Then he saw Miroku. He watched, half in horror and half aroused, as Sesshomaru kept him pinned against a wall. Miroku walked out, a girl no older than Daemon himself holding arms with him. He smiled at her, those gorgeous smile that Daemon had never been able to duplicate, and she all but threw herself at him. Then Miroku wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. She swooned against him, her moans audible in the empty street.

Miroku lifted his neck to lock eyes with Daemon, smiling. He could hear Miroku's voice in his mind as he told him to pay close attention, telling him that this was how they fed. Daemon watched as Miroku changed as well, as those white fangs appeared, and his eyes became so intense they made one's mind fill with chaos at the mere sight of them. He watched, transfixed, as Miroku bit into the girls throat, and he watched the blood slip from around his lips, dripping to the ground. Miroku fed, and then Sesshomaru released Daemon.

He held the body out, leading, asking silently for Daemon to step forward and to take the blood being offered to him. This was the first test. If Daemon failed it, he would not be a vampire, he would be dead. If he did not accept it, he was a liability. But, Miroku's fear proved to be misplaced as the human boy stepped forward, placed his mouth against the blood swelling on the woman's neck, and drank every last drop.

For several years after that, Daemon began to accompany Miroku and Sesshomaru on their hunts. He tried it all. He watched as Miroku seduced women, feeling himself longing for the blood and envious of the sway Miroku had. He ran with Sesshomaru, carried on his back as he ran, chasing down crying children whose deaths had been sealed when the sun shrank in the horizon. He learned to hunt, to stalk, to conceal himself and wait for the ideal moment.

"Do we have to kill them?" he inquired one day, as Sesshomaru fed and Miroku lounged nearby. He looked at his older brother, who was now slightly shorter than him. Often, he teased Miroku about not being able to grow anymore.

"No, we don't _have_ to, but there's something pleasing about it," Miroku shrugged. "After all, they're just vermin. They don't deserve to live."

Sesshomaru thought nothing of this argument until a few nights later. Inuyasha held a girl his own age, drinking from her, and as he lifted his head, he decided to leave. He set the girl down and walked away, wiping at his mouth. Sesshomaru growled at him. "Finish it, boy! Kill her!"

"Why should I? I'm not like you. I'm human yet, no matter how much I despise it. I will kill when I'm like you, but not until then. Until then, I don't have to kill, so why should I! Until then, I'm just the same as they are, and I don't want to be a hypocrite! Why should this innocent girl die when she doesn't have to? I don't need to kill her to live!"

"You will kill her because I order you too!"

Daemon, at that moment, did the bravest and stupidest thing he would ever do in his whole life. He whirled around on Sesshomaru. "NO."

Sesshomaru stared in shock. Quietly, he began to approach the girl, who was starting to awaken. "Miroku… see to it that he doesn't leave. Nobody disobeys me."

"Lord Sesshomaru…" The lord gave Miroku one look, and the ex-monk silenced himself. Miroku reached out and grabbed Daemon's arm before he could walk away, and though Daemon was taller and built on a larger scale, he could not move. His back was turned, but he still saw and heard everything. Sesshomaru was broadcasting it out, searing it into his mind. No, he was aware of _everything_.

'Sesshomaru… you bastard!'

When he was done, Sesshomaru walked by casually, as if nothing had ever happened. He paused briefly, cleaning the blood from his fingers with his lips. "Daemon, if you ever refuse to do anything I tell you again, your fate will be the same as hers."

Miroku and Daemon stood there for a long time. Finally, Miroku remembered that he was still holding Daemon, and he let go, his eyes still on the body parts sprawled in the street. God, he pitied whatever creature stumbled upon this mess in the morning. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Are you talking to me or to the girl?"

"Both of you."

"Don't apologize. That would suggest you regret. Regret is a human emotion and beyond us. It is inconsequential." Miroku shuddered to hear those words in Daemon's voice. They were Sesshomaru's words, spoken perfectly in his tone of voice, and disturbing.

Miroku still stared at the body as Daemon walked away. "You'll have to confront your human emotions sometime, Daemon. Otherwise, the more you surprise things like guilt, like pity and regret, the harder it will be to deal with them. Don't be fooled by me. Just because I accept and cherish what little humanity I have left, it doesn't mean that I'm not capable of things like that myself, Daemon. We all are. Even other human beings."

Daemon laughed. "Don't fool yourself, Miroku. You're never capable of something like that. I will make myself capable of doing _anything_, and so should you. One day, I'm going to kill him." He waited until the anger disappeared on his face before he looked back at his brother. "Don't worry. I forgive you, Miroku."

-

The training went on. Finally, Sesshomaru came to Daemon one night, and told him to go out and enjoy his day. They were going to change him that night. If he disappeared on them, they would hunt him down and kill him. He threw a bag of money on Daemon's bed, and disappeared.

Daemon went out and enjoyed his day.

That night, Sesshomaru came to him. Daemon felt like he was in a dream. He sat down next to Sesshomaru, and felt tingles run up and down his spine when the powerful man gently stroked his hair, pulling it back and exposing his neck. His hands brushed his jaw line, making Daemon raise his head. "You will sleep until tomorrow night, at which point you will go out and make your first bite as a vampire. At the moment, the blood will choose you, give you unique gifts and abilities, and you will choose a new name."

He stopped speaking and leaned in closer to Daemon, pressing him against the futon. His warm tongue lapped at the young boy's neck. Daemon closed his eyes when he felt that feral breath on him. He didn't like being in this weakened position. He didn't like feeling as if his life was in danger, he didn't like being reminded that at that moment, he was utterly incapable of defending himself. Sesshomaru could kill him, and he was powerless to stop it. He let out a whimper as those fangs he had envied for so long dragged across his skin.

"Do you want it?"

"Y…yes."

"How much do you want it?" The tongue lapped again, and his hands enclosed around his shoulder, the bones groaning under the pressure. "Enough to die for it?"

"Yes!"

And in the end, Daemon did die for it.

He slept for one whole day.

When dusk fell, he felt ravenous. He wasn't aware of who he was, of what he was. Miroku came to tell him that he could go out hunting, and he nearly attacked his brother. His hair was matted, his eyes wild, his lips snarling. But he was still human. The blood was fighting for control. If Daemon failed to kill, failed to drink mortal blood, he would die. If he did drink mortal blood, the vampire in him would awaken. Sesshomaru had taken his life, and either Daemon could accept it, or chose to live.

They set him out into the world, and in the end, he killed.

He killed a lot.

At the end on the night, he returned home, soaked with blood, and Miroku saw his brother for the first time, and he was scared. He looked like Sesshomaru. His eyes were to same fierce gold, his hair the same silver mane, his hands clawed. The blood from those claws, from his clothes, dripped on the floor. He held his head proudly, the dog ears on his head just as bloody as the rest of him.

"I am Inuyasha."

Sesshomaru was more than proud. But then Inuyasha turned to look at him, and he realized that in his quest to make the perfect vampire, he had made Inuyasha hate him; loathe him.

'That boy is going to be trouble.'

-

Kagome saw a lot more. She saw half a century's worth of memories, many of them wishing she had not seen, that she had not known. She had already run out of tears when they got to Kikyo. It was only five years ago. Kikyo looked very much like Kagome did in the present, the same haunted expression, the same movements of her body… but she was missing hope. Kagome had her family, she had Kouga, she had Inuyasha and she had Sango.

Kikyo, it was clear, had nobody; at least, she had nobody who cared.

Kikyo stood outside the theater, the flashing lights reflected in her straight black hair. There was a soft click from somewhere, but with all the other noises and the flashing lights, he couldn't pin point it. All he saw was a lost, lonely sixteen year old girl. She was the perfect target. He approached her, deciding to go for one of Miroku's approaches. He'd trick her into some dark alleyway and kill her there.

"Target in range," she muttered. The woman suddenly spun, a gun in her hands. It sounded like a thunderclap right in his ear, and it was followed by excruciating pain in his knee cap. She marched forward as he hobbled back. Inuyasha knew he could heal the wound, but it would take a night or two, and until then, he couldn't walk. Kikyo marched forward, her tight leather pants distracting him further. God, he was so hungry!

"In pain?" she demanded, reloading the gun. Apparently it only fired one shot at a time, thank god. She leveled the gun again, and his other kneecap was removed. Inuyasha, had he the ability to shed tears at that age in time, would have been bawling from the pain. "You should be. They're capped with wood. I hear that's poisonous to your kind."

Click.

A new bullet.

Inuyasha was on his back, supported by his hands. His human disguise had slipped, and now his gold eyes searched for a way out. His lips were drawn back in a snarl. Kikyo stood over him. The barrel of the gun was pointed straight at his head. "This time," she sneered, "I won't miss."

Before she could pull the trigger, a new figure barreled into her. She was flung back on the ground, and strong arms embraced Inuyasha, picking him off of the ground and running away with him. Inuyasha whimpered, his breathing irregular, but he could still smell Miroku. Miroku cradled his younger brother against his chest, and Inuyasha clung on for dear life.

That was the first time he had met Kikyo.

The second time he had met Kikyo, he'd punched her.

So sheflattened him under a building.

-

Finally, all the memories were done. Kagome leaned back. Sometime during their moment, it had started to rain. Kagome was soaking wet, and shivering. The chalk circle had been erased from the floor, the bowl that had once contained her blood was overflowing with the falling raindrops. They hid the paths her tears had made, and she was glad. Quickly, she wiped her lips of his blood, and looked up at him.

He was waiting, waiting for her to say something. But he was surprised when she was serious. He had expected more tears from her, expected some type of answer that was beyond him to give. He expected anger, furious anger, directed at him, expected blows and punches and curses of every kind… Instead she looked up at him as if he were her avenger. Not a hero, not someone who did good, just someone who for the moment was able to do something she couldn't do, and when he completed it she would be satisfied.

'Sango,' Kagome moaned, 'why didn't you tell me? You've met him before; you gave him those scars on his cheeks, you knew his name… why didn't you tell me that Sesshomaru was the one who had killed Souta?"

"I hope you kill him, Inuyasha," she said savagely, reminding Inuyasha that she was not always the little girl of sunshine he saw. "I hope you rip his fucking heart out."

* * *

To Be Continued...


	17. The Other Side

The Blooded

AN: I wasn't going to post this until next week, but talking to "certain people" helped to make me feel inspired. But I _still_ need to find time for homework and it sucks.

Aamalie: I believe that Kagome's dark side in the anime is _really_ deep. She can't be completely sweet and maternal. Or does Inuyasha represent the dark side? …Now you got me thinking again… bah… thinking…

Lily Thorne: Wow! Anne Rice! ::blushes:: Thank you very much!

Siren: Slayer vs. witch cat fight? Hm…. You know, that would have been rather fun to write, but then Sango would have won (Hello! Vampire speed against the time it takes Kagome to weave a spell? Sango would have her down and out in no time!) and they would have lost this great friendship.

Demon: I know. But the thing, this was five hundred years ago, where people would have been married a lot of the time before they were our age. Hell, scratch that. I'm twenty. People my age back then would have six year old kids to look after. (Thank GOD I don't live in the past! ::cries in happiness:: )

Kirassa-chan: Congratulations! One of your guesses about Kikyo was correct. Gee, I hope I didn't make things to easy for you guys. I like having surprises!

Blue-Puppy: I am a University student. You should hear the stuff they tell us in classes. All I hear all day is things about sex. ::winces:: And to make matters worse, most of the "good" stuff is developed when I am running on sugar and no sleep… that's what I blame half this stuff on.

Ninalee-chan: Actually, Miroku, for all his tough talk, is really a good guy. I, personally, think those same qualities are in the anime: he cheats, lies (I mean, exaggerates), steals, flirts constantly, and gropes Sango (much to her annoyance and our envy) and yet… he's still this wonderful person on the inside.

Queen Ebony: If you want a good book series to read to sway your decision, try reading _Secret Vampire_ by L. J. Smith. Her take on vampires is that they are symbiotic to human beings, so you may like them. Compared to how much of a bastard Sesshy is in this fic, her vampires are cute fuzzy bunnies.

Oh, and when the reverend comes in, I strongly suggest that you imagine him talking in a Southern drawl. It's most amusing that way. (Don't ask me why….)

Enjoy!

**Chapter Seventeen:**

**The Other Side**

Thursday, September 29th, 10 am

If there was one thing that Sango could appreciate about her suspension from school, it was the fact that she could sleep in, and eat a lot. These were the two greatest things in her life at the moment. She had the house to herself, she'd already gotten all her homework done for the rest of her suspension (it helped that she done it all before anyway, in her last lifetime), and so Sango had snuck out and bought all the movies she had wanted to see, but had never gotten the chance. She added on to that lots of sleeping in. She only felt safe when the sun was up thanks to that nightmare she had experienced on Tuesday night. She also ate as much food as she could hold.

After she finished pouring liberal amounts of maple syrup on her pancakes, she marched into the kitchen and threw on the first movie of the day, _Dracula_. She figured she would start off with a light comedy, then she'd throw on _Casablanca_, followed by another comedy.

Sitting down on the floor, Sango dug into her pancakes and decided she hadn't put enough syrup on them. She could still taste the fact that she hadn't cooked them properly. They were burned on the outside, and uncooked on the inside, but Sango ate them anyway.

'This is pathetic,' she thought to herself as the credits began to roll, 'I've had how many lifetimes and I can't even make pancakes… but at least my stomach feels like dealing with it now.'

She kept on telling herself that, anyway. She still felt like crap. But Sango forced herself to eat, forced herself to rest and be active periodically throughout the day. She didn't want to be sick, nor did she want to become so weak that the vampires would succeed in killing her. Sango wanted to at least be able to finish high school in this lifetime. Ten minutes into the movie, the doorbell rang.

Cursing wildly, Sango paused the movie and answered the door, rubbing her eyes. She was aware of how terrible everything looked. The air inside was still tinged with the sent of burning from her pancakes. Her hair was still unwashed and pulled into a bun that kept unraveling, some strands of her dark hair held fast, others falling to their normal length. She was wearing pajamas, which were wrinkled from having been slept in. Or at least, they were wrinkled because she had tried to sleep in them. Sango was rubbing eyes that were bloodshot from what little sleep she had been getting, and her voice was still groggy.

It became a hundred times worse when she looked up and found two cops looking at her.

-

Kagome was worried about having to deal with Kikyo in class. How was she supposed to sit there and take notes on the history of language when all she could remember was how calmly she had pulled the trigger of the gun, the pain she had felt when her knees had been hit with a bullet, the barrel of the gun pointing at her forehead…

Shivering with an unnatural cold, feelings her knees go weak as she remembered the mind-numbing fear of finding out that she was at the mercy of another hunter, she leaned outside of her classroom. 'They weren't my memories. I was never hurt,' she kept reminding herself. 'It was Inuyasha. These are Inuyasha's memories. Not mine.'

Ultimately, what made Kagome enter the classroom was the strange looks her classmates gave her—those who dared look her in the eye, anyway—as they filed into class. If she didn't go in, they would think she was even odder, some might even know that it was Kikyo who scared her. She didn't want to show weakness in the faces of her peers. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the room… only to find that Kikyo wasn't there. It was another substitute.

Feeling a bit silly, she took her seat and opened her notebook.

Where was Kikyo?

-

Kikyo stood behind the mirror, watching as the girl named Sango was interrogated. She had her arms folded against her chest, and she was rather amazed that the girl hadn't yet gone insane from the repetitive questions. Kikyo herself was getting bored, and she had been trained to deal with torture. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "How much longer are you going to keep the girl here?" she asked the cop. "I already told you that she has nothing to do with Kuranosuke's death."

Much to her surprise, the policeman was serious when he answered her. "Even though I would believe you if you said that the murderer had been a half-transformed werewolf, unfortunately Kuranosuke's father feels differently about it. I won't keep the girl too much longer." He looked at Kikyo, with her turtleneck and her black sweater. She was covered up from head to toe, and yet she still somehow managed to appear seductive and beautiful, in a cold, frozen way. He was sweating from the still air in the little room, and he wasn't wearing a turtleneck. "Aren't you hot?"

"No."

"Oh." He went back to looking at the interrogation. "I wonder what will happen if we play this back for the boy's father. He won't be pleased to hear what his son was really like."

"And what was my son _really_ like?" asked a dark voice from the doorway. The officer jumped at the sound of the voice, but Kikyo merely glanced at it from the corner of her eye.

The man standing in the doorway was hard to see from the light behind him, but as he closed it and stepped further into the room, he became more visible. His hair was long and curly, pulled back into a loose ponytail. He was impeccably dressed in a tailored suit and held a cane in his left hand. The man walked with a bit of limb, as if he suffered a terrible injury. His eyes were hard and pointed, a deep brown close to being black, but his heartless appearance just made him seem wild. To be so cold… he had to be at least slightly insane; maybe that was why everyone feared him.

He stared at the girl, who lounged in the chair as if she hadn't been kept in that seat for the better part of ten hours. He scratched his head. "So, this is the new girl that befriended the little witch, is she? The power of Satan fills her. I can smell it. She is no more than a common whore…"

"Reverend! That _is_ slander!" the cop snapped.

While Kikyo was proud that the chief was showing a bit of backbone, she was surprised. Needless to say, the surprise didn't show on her face. This man was a reverend? 'It's hard to believe.'

"You're right, sir. I do apologize. It was most improper of me. I wonder if I might be able to go and talk to her, perhaps see if there is a spark of Satan in her after all, and if so, then I can exorcise it immediately."

"I don't think so. In fact, Reverend, I don't think you should be here at all. Your daughter recently returned, didn't she? Don't you think perhaps you should be back at home with her, helping each other through this hard time?"

"Rin needs no help. Like all women, she is heartless, filled with the original sin that makes her feel nothing for her own blood." Kikyo bristled with anger, and at that the man turned with her, a knowing smile on his face. Kikyo felt as if her anger at his words had somehow proved his argument. "I take it that you are the woman who went over my son's body? The woman that claims these children weren't involved in my son's death?"

"I am."

"Then I ask you: how can you claim these children weren't involved, that a _witch_ isn't involved in my son's death? Madam, that child that you say is innocent is no more than a heathen, who fouls up this fair city and her people by spreading her poison!"

Obviously, it was going to be a very long day. Kikyo showed no emotion as the reverend ranted about how Kagome had to be involved in his son's death. She had never been told that she was going to have to deal with crazy theologians when she signed up for this job. All she wanted was to kill a vampire or a demon, and then she would be happy. After all, most humans only got one kill in.

But she wasn't fully human.

When she was five years old, her family had been attacked by vampires. They were coming out of the hospital, Kikyo cradled in the arms of her parents, who felt better now that they clutched the prescription for their daughter's cough. Kikyo felt safe, and happy, even though her body had been sick. As her father unlocked the car door, the vampires had attacked.

She couldn't remember the attack, except in her nightmares. Luckily, she couldn't remember them when she awoke, and luckily, she slept very little. Her mother and father were killed by the vampires. She was bitten as well. Kikyo hadn't known what to do, so she had done the only thing she could think of, given the situation: she had fought back. Kikyo had fought back with everything she could muster. She beat with her tiny fists and kicked, and she had gnashed her teeth… and bit him.

The blood had flowed into her body, burning her throat and stinging her, bringing tears to her eyes. The vampire was so surprised, he had back off, and ran away as an ambulance approached and he mistook them for the police. They had traded blood, but neither of them had gotten enough.

It reacted as poison in Kikyo's system. The paramedics heard her crying and took her into the hospital, tearing her away from her parents as they tried to save them. They failed to save her parents, but Kikyo recovered. In fact, when they cleaned her up, the nurse that had given her a sedative had found no marks on her. She was simply covered in blood, and they assumed it had been the blood of her parents.

They kept her in the hospital as they tried to find somebody to come and pick her up. She was there for three days, steadily growing worse. Old men and woman came to see her, as if she were a puppy there to simply cheer her up. The staff assumed that she didn't eat because she missed her parents, hence the visits from the senior citizens. They hoped that feeling loved and needed might encourage her to eat, but it did nothing. One night, once again finding herself sleepless, she was staggering down the hallway. Her stomach was crying out for food, and she held it tightly. Her eyes stared blindly ahead, her dark hair fanning behind her with each labored step.

Then she saw it. It was a blood pack laying on a cart, waiting for someone to come in and fill the cart and need the blood. Kikyo could hear them coming. She had found her way near the emergency room doors. There was a man with them, screaming in pain.

Before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed the package of blood and dove to the nurse's station, hiding behind it as the doors outside to the ambulance parking crashed open. The man with them still screamed in pain.

"Get the package of blood! I'll get the sedative!" the nurse cried.

"There isn't a blood package here!" the other nurse cried as the two paramedics wrestled the screaming man to the bed. "Are you sure you left it here?"

"Yes. What do you mean it's not there?"

"Are you two going to keep arguing about a fucking blood pack? Just go get the sedative or come here and hold him down and I'll go get the fucking drugs!" the paramedic bellowed. The nurses scattered.

Hidden behind the desk, Kikyo hadn't even been listening. She was too busy sucking on the blood she had stolen, feeling the hunger in her satiated. It was cold, but she didn't care. It was the finest food she had ever tasted. Afterwards, she threw the package in the garbage can, and snuck back in her room. For the first night in a long time, she was able to sleep.

But she had also awoken the blood that had been laying dormant in her veins. The next morning when the friendly nurse had awoken her, the food she had held seemed unappetizing.

_Kikyo__ tried to eat it, but it tasted like eating sand. She could smell the blood in the air in the hospital. She longed for it. She could hear the beating hearts of the people around her._

_ How they found her, she didn't know. They found her in the nick of time, before she could get her second taste of human blood. The men took her, they stuffed her into the back of a car, and she walked like a zombie. Her brown eyes were lifeless. The men that had liberated her from the hospital pitied her, and she told them that she didn't want their pity. She knew what she had done. She knew what she had been drinking, and if they were fooled because she was young, then she was the one who pitied them._

_ "But then why did you do it? Don't you know what you did? You drank human blood."_

_ "Your point is?" she asked casually, turning to look up at the man that had spoken. "I drank human blood. I do not see the point. I was starving. It made me feel better. By drinking that blood, I chose to live, rather than let the bite of that monster kill me. By choosing to live, I may avenge my parents." The man shuddered her cold, unblinking gaze. "Tell me… what am I?"_

_ The other man answered her. "They're called ghouls. They are people who are half-vampire, and half-human. He didn't take enough blood for you to die, nor did you take enough to fully turn vampire. But you drank human blood, which awoke the vampire blood. It has started to change you. So long as you continue to drink human blood, those changes will remain. You will be slightly faster, slightly stronger, and have slighter better senses. If you stop drinking human blood, it will slowly go away."_

_ She looked over at the other man. He wasn't as disturbed by her gaze, though he would never forget the haunted eyes of a five year old girl who had already decided to live for revenge. "And if I die?"_

_ "If you die after you stop drinking human blood, you will simply die. If you die and you have lived consuming human blood, you will become a vampire, and we will not hesitate to kill you."_

_ Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not afraid of dying."_

_ They took her to what would be her home for a long time afterwards. Kikyo learned much, learned about the things that went bump in the night, and she continued drinking human blood from donors. She never killed humans, and she only got near to them when she had to. She associated little with other pupils, and she aced all her classes. She learned a wide variety of weapons, and she slowly became strong in every sense of the word. She was the Institution's pride and joy._

_ Finally, it became time to send her out into the world. She was given back her identity, and she was given her assignment. Most only of the Institution's graduates only had one assignment. They didn't live through their first one to get a second one. Kikyo left the Institution, and was dropped off at an airport. It was her job to go from there; either she could get on the plane that would take her to her destination, or she could go anywhere else in the world and pretend that her life had never happened._

_ Kikyo boarded the plane that led her to her target. She studied the man in the photographs. His name was Inuyasha._

'I was so proud,' she thought as she watched the police officer tell Sango she was free to leave. She knew her visage was a scowl, but she didn't care. 'I was proud when I want back to the Institution and demanded another assignment. I was so proud to be one of those few people who lived past their first assignment. And now I find that the bastard isn't dead. I dropped a fucking warehouse on his head, and he's not dead yet? What will it take to kill him?!'

She was glad that it was so dark in the room. It meant that the two arguing men could not see her face in the darkness, that they could not see her scowl and the reverend could not use her expression in his continuing argument that women were the spawn of Satan.

Nor could they see that she had no reflection in the mirror.

-

Thursday, September 29th , 8 pm

When Sango was finally released, it was dark. The police offered—insisted even—that they drive her home since her mother was working a double shift at the hospital and wasn't able to come and pick her up, but Sango had refused until they had given up. After spending ten hours in the police station the last thing she wanted to see was another cop. Sango walked outdoors and took a deep breath of fresh air. It smelled wonderful after being in the sweaty smelling, moldy room. Sango began to walk home.

'It's going to be a great night for hunting demons…' she thought at the beginning, but by the time she had gotten halfway home, she had felt her sickness settle upon her again. Sango had been feeling better. Since the night Miroku had dropped her off, her fever had gone down and she had been able to keep down her foods. But she had also slept a lot more than normal during the day, and during the night she often stayed up reading because her hands were shaking, her stomach upset and tied into paralyzing knots

Now that same feeling was returning. Sango hadn't rested all day. She was tired. She hadn't eaten properly at all, and the breakfast that she had barely started hadn't been cooked properly anyway. She was tired, she was hungry, and she could feel her temperature starting to rise.

'I hate this,' she thought lividly, continue fighting her way home. Sango refused to admit that maybe she should have taken up the officers' advice had gotten a ride home. 'I hate being sick, I hate how my body won't listen to me! I'm the fucking Slayer! I hunt the goddamn undead! How can I be getting this sick just from a little lack of sleep and a little bit of malnutrition?' Her stomach tried to heave, and Sango leaned against a tree until the nausea passed. After that, her thoughts were a little less vehement. 'Maybe it was the eggs from my pancakes…'

"Having some trouble?"

She recognized the voice immediately, and it was not one she wanted to hear. Sango spun around, feeling the world tilt back and forth. The ground was unsteady under her feet. Was this what it felt like to be drunk? With all the colors blurring together and the land feeling like some shifting, enormous alive _thing_ under your feet? If it was, Sango never wanted to be drunk.

Miroku stood behind her, a bag in his hand. Sango was starting to wonder how anybody who was dead could look so good. He was impeccably dressed, his tight black jeans nearly invisible in the dimming light, his earrings standing out against his jet black hair. He smiled at her, and even she felt her heart jump in elation. She tried to squash it flat, but she was distracted as making the world seem straight became more important. Her heart continued to beat abnormally fast.

His face flashed with concern when she rubbed her temple. He stepped closer, seeing her face flushed. "You're still not well," he said gently.

"I'm fine!"

Suddenly he was right beside her, offering her the bag he held in his hands. The faintest of blushes rose to his cheeks when he became so close to her, her scent, the warmth of her body bringing back memories of the dream he had last had of her. He looked down at her intently, so much so that Sango cursed the fact that she had no weapon—as she doubted the cops would have liked her bringing an axe with her into the precinct.

"You are far from being well, Sango. Allow me to escort you home again."

"Absolutely not." The argument was saved from going further when Sango looked down at the brown bag that she was holding. "What exactly is this anyway?"

"Homemade chicken noodle soup."

She looked up at him in surprise. "You made me chicken noodle soup?"

"Actually, the people who own the restaurant down the street made the homemade chicken noodle soup. I just bought you some," he chuckled with a smile. "People think I'm odd enough without going around making soup. Besides, I wouldn't know the first thing about making soup."

"At least we have one thing in common, then," Sango dryly remarked. Still holding the bag of soup, she began her weary walk home again, but Miroku still followed behind her. His long legs meant that his steps were slow and almost gracefully lazily as he ambled beside her, while she had to focus on the ground. He made some dry remark before she turned around and looked up at him.

When had he gotten so close? His black leather jacket was pressed up against her light sweater, the strands of her long hair clinging to his shoulder as if drawn there magically. She could smell his soap—it was amazing that the undead still needed to shower—and he smelled good. He stared down at her, the edges of his sensuous mouth curled up ever so slightly into the faintest of smiles. His grey-blue eyes seemed flecked with violet as he looked down at her.

'Is this how he hunts?' she wondered, her heart once again giving an extra little beat. Her hands felt clammy. 'He gets close to women and then he…' She well remembered some of the girls he had killed from when she had peeked at his memories when he had killed her. She was still staring up at him when he spoke in a whisper.

"Clara…"

She could have denied that she had ever once been called Clara. She could have pretended that he was merely talking about the last Slayer he had killed. Sango could have done many things to imagine that he didn't know about the connection between Clara and Sango, but when she risked a glance into those eyes, she knew she would have looked like a fool. He knew. He knew what she was, and who she had been, and how she had come to be. Somehow, he had found out.

"Yes?" she answered, pleased with herself when he was shocked at her answer. Her brown looked so innocent, and yet so filled with hatred. He was more than shocked, especially that she was admitting it so easily.

Sango blinked, and moved closer to Miroku, seeing that she had him on the edge and that she should continue her victory by unsettling him further. Her hair swung like a snake behind her as she walked, her pleasure doubling when he backed up.

"You know, Miroku. I would have told you from the very beginning, but you wouldn't have believed me. What was I supposed to say to you? I know who you are, because you killed me in my past life? That I learned how to read auras from you? That I gained powers of telepathy from you? That you added a sharpness to my intellect? That I _knew_ you?"

She leaned up against him, her body just barely touching his. Lifting her head, her lips grazed his chin, her eyelashes covering her eyes from his prying gaze. Her breath was warm on his cold skin. Miroku felt his mouth fall open, his mind blank from all thoughts as her scent wound around him. God, she was so close! His palms itched to hold her, touch her, to just grab her and kiss her! 'She… Sango's toying with me.'

"I knew how to do this from you too. Seduction. Sensuality." His violet eyes watched her lips form the words, and Miroku swallowed, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep from reaching out and grabbing her, kissing her so hard that her lips bruised and turned deep red from her rushing blood.

"I know who and what _you_ are, Miroku. It's the vampires that you taught personally, that you selected and influence who gave rise to the idea of vampires being sexual creatures. You're the one who created the idea that by offering herself up to one of them, a girl can ease away the things they have done in the past with no more than a kiss and a kind gesture."

Tilting back her neck, Miroku could feel himself start to change as he looked down at the supple neck, at the veins and the smooth, creamy skin. He felt his teeth lengthen, and he licked his lips. He didn't miss how Sango's deep brown eyes followed this movement, and he felt himself becoming aroused. Not aroused for a hunt, or for the kill, but for actually sex, for intimacy.

'Fuck,' he swore as he stared down at her, 'I'd die just for a _kiss_…'

She breathed in heavily, somewhere between a pant and a sigh. "I know everything about you, Miroku, which is why I won't fall victim to you again." Her beautiful lips formed the words, her voice filled with stinging rejection, and she pressed the paper bag back into his hands before she spun away. "You're going to have to learn some new tricks if you think that just by pretending to be some sweet little boy in love is going to make my guard come down around you again. This time you're going to be the one that ends up six feet under, asshole."

Miroku gazed at her as she walked away. For a moment it seemed as if the sickly aura that clung to her had gone before as she stomped away, her hair still swishing back and forth, and her jeans showing off a great ass. Miroku let out a sound of longing, realizing he just let a beautiful opportunity slide away, before he realized that he was holding the soup he had bought for her.

"Sango! Sango, wait!"

She didn't stop, but she did glance over her shoulder. Miroku wasn't there anymore. When she looked forward again, she was two inches away from her. She let out a small scream and raised her hands to fight before the ground suddenly tilted again, the colors melding together as she fell suddenly to the ground. Sitting on the ground, waiting for her head to clear, she looked up at him, even though there seemed to be three Mirokus who seemed to be switching places a lot. "Don't do that too me, you stupid pervert!"

He bent down to her level and held out the bag again. "You forgot your soup."

"I don't want the soup!" Sango snapped, crossing her arms and glaring up at the three ex-monks. "Besides, it's a horrible gift!" Her face stopped being so much of a pouting glare as she softened it slightly. "How people ever see you as a Casanova, I don't know, especially when you bring such selfish gifts."

"What do you mean?" he asked casually, honestly hurt. "I was thinking of you as I passed by the little family-owned restaurant, and I was bringing you soup to make you feel better. How is that selfish?"

"Because," Sango retorted, "it's your motivations behind it that are selfish. You didn't do this for me, Miroku, you did it for yourself. Why do you want me to feel better? It's not because you're worried about me being sick, or even because you pity me, it's because you want me to feel better so we can have an honest battle. That way you will be satisfied because you won't be using any underhanded methods to fight me this time, and so if you kill me, you won't have any reason to feel guilty. When you get me a gift, get it because you want to get me something. When you have no other ulterior motives, that's when you'll be sweet in my eyes."

He reached down a hand and helped her up, not letting go until she was steady. He smiled down at her, his smile barely that. "Just take the food, will you, Sango? We can argue about ulterior motives after you're feeling better."

She couldn't help but blush at that comment. She took the soup from him and started walking away… but she didn't get very far, as she suddenly lost her balance. Luckily, Miroku was right there to catch her. He smiled at her charmingly, and clucked his tongue in a maternal, disapproving manner. "You're not going to tell me no anymore, Sango. I'm walking you home, and you can't stop me."

"I can try," she growled… but she allowed him to walk her home anyway. Halfway there, she looked up at him. "How come whenever I'm around you, I start feeling sick?"

He smiled down at her, and she felt herself smile slightly in response. "I guess that I just have one of those personalities," Miroku said jokingly.

Despite herself, Sango laughed.


	18. Dreams and Nightmares

The Blooded

AN: Sorry I haven't been updating as much! (at least it feels that way to me) School work is being a bitch right now. To make matters worse, instead of the workload I had last semester, I also have to start handing stuff in for my mythology class to prove I did the work, so now I actually have _work_ to do instead of just reading the material and making notes in the margins.

Don't you kids look at me like that. I bought the book, I can underline if I want!

I apologize for the sheer amounts of italics, but hopefully the content will make up for it.

Siren: I will make note of a Kagome/Sango fright scene, though not for this story… hm…. ::tosses it into her idea pot to see what can cook up::

And now… for the awards:

For guessing the content of this chapter correctly: Lily Thorne and Starzki.

For guessing Naraku's cameo: (He's the reverend, sillies!) Aamalie, Chadrific, and I think you got it right too, Ninalee-chan.

Krisa-chan: Huh. ::flips through the book:: Not one female vampire. Weird. Oh well.

…if memory serves, the first of several fight scenes start next chapter… it's going to be a blood bath from here on in! …And yet, somehow, I still managed to get in some good old fluff!

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did!

**Chapter Eighteen: **

**Dreams and Nightmares**

Thursday, September 29th, 9:45 pm

Kohaku felt like he was on top of the world. He looked across the table of the café to gaze at Rin, trying very hard from smiling like an idiot. He couldn't help but chant in the back of his mind: 'I'm on a date with Rin Onigumo! I can't believe it! I'm on a date with a girl I like!'

But even this elation could not stop him from noticing that she was distracted. She hadn't even touched her hot chocolate. She had been quiet through their matinee, and now she stared out the window, looking a little longing. He was happy, but Kohaku was hardly blind to the emotions of the opposite sex. On the contrary, he had to be good to be able to avoid Sango's horrible mood swings. He knew the expression well, he'd seen it countless times when Sango had been dragged to family affairs or school. Rin wanted to be anywhere else but with him at that moment.

Not for the first time that evening, Kohaku put down his mug of hot chocolate. "You know, if you have something you need to do, or somewhere you need to be, like your tutor's, I'm not going to keep you here."

Rin snapped back to reality. "Oh," she said softly, trying to process what he had just said. She felt bad, treating Kohaku like this. He was a sweet boy, and she really was interested in him, and they had been planning this date for a while, but… She disliked missing her lessons with Miroku, though he had said he wasn't going to be there that evening anyway. She also felt bad because her brother wasn't even in the ground yet and she was going out with a boy.

It really wasn't fair to Kohaku.

And to make matters worse, she was sitting there across from him, thinking of a certain man who terrified her, but who was also the prettiest man she had ever seen. Compared to him, Inuyasha looked like a fluffy little kitten, and he was a gorgeous silver lion. Compared to him, Inuyasha acted like a silly teenager.

'Sesshomaru…'

"Don't be silly," she said, as she always did when Kohaku spoke about going home or doing homework. This was the fourth time he had mentioned it, a clear sign that she was being a very bad date. "Of course I want to be here, Kohaku. I'm just a little distracted right now." Before she had finished her speech, she was back to looking out the window.

Kohaku sighed and resumed drinking his drink.

-

Sango got home and found nobody home. She wondered where Kohaku was, before she remembered that she had heard Kohaku mentioning a date he had tonight, and Sango had immediately decided she needed to take a shower. Sango knew that as soon as Kohaku told their Mom about a date, she was going to start into one of her infamous "spiels". Sango really didn't want her Mom to start gushing about how Kohaku was making her proud, about how Kohaku was such a good, _normal_ kid.

'He deserves the praise,' Sango was wise enough to note. 'He's been through a lot, and he deserved to get a little attention like that from Mom. It will boost his ego. I wish that she just didn't say it loud enough so that it seems like she's spiting _me_.'

Ignoring the bitter stabs, knowing that she shouldn't be jealous of Kohaku or mad at her mother, she decided instead to settle for scavenging the kitchen for something edible. She found lots of edible food, if she had the time and the inclination to cook it. Sango didn't want to cook. She wanted to go to bed. First, she had been up for a very long time and was tired. Second, she had barely eaten anything and didn't want to waste time cooking. Third, she was mentally exhausted from being questioned and then guarding her thoughts like a mad woman from Miroku and his prying mind.

Sango looked at the bag on the kitchen table. Chicken noodle soup actually sounded pretty good. It would be warm, and healthy, and nice and light on her stomach. She slowly opened the bag, eyeing the container warily. It came from her enemy; an enemy who had already used underhanded methods on her on more than one occasion. Could she really trust him just because he said he wanted her to be better so they could fight fairly?

'I let my guard down around him and I died for it. But the other two times he's used his powers around me, he was just a bastard.' She stared at the soup. It smelled good.

In the end, her stomach won and she nuked the soup to warm it up before she dug into it, a book propped up in front of her in the kitchen table. She read through book almost as fast as he went through the soup. Afterwards, Sango dragged herself up the stairs to brush her hair and her teeth and wash her face. Her headache had diminished slightly, and her stomach was happy at getting decent food.

Yawning, Sango barely managed to make it to bed and pull the covers over her before she was asleep. It had been a mentally and physically exhausting day… a_nd the hand that wound around her waist to settle on her stomach drew her close to the warm body behind her. His proximity made her feel more relaxed, his heat easing her tired and aching limbs until her body felt comfortable. She sighed, lifting her neck a little when she felt his breath on her skin. "Somehow," she said in a whisper, "coming home to you makes the day seem worthwhile, Miroku."_

Sango knew it was a dream. She knew it had to be a dream. There was no other way that she would let him hold her like a lover would, or for him to get so close to her. His lips placed little, warm kisses across her neck. No, there was no way she would allow herself to be exposed to that vampire like this. Sango struggled to open her eyes. She managed to do so, though they felt heavy… _and she found herself in a room that she had seen before. She recognized the furniture, the blankets on the bed, the decorations on the walls…What kind of a dream was this? She _had_ opened her eyes, hadn't she? "A nightmare," she said, her voice sounding not quite like her own. When had she sounded so helpless or scared? Was that what made her voice tremble and shake with anticipation? His long fingers traced the outlines of the muscles on her stomach._

_"My biggest fantasy," he purred, his lips still tasting her._

_"What is?"_

_"You."_

_The simple answer made her heart stop. For a moment her brain felt like a great void, like a black star had collapsed inside of her and swallowed up all her thoughts, all of her emotions. Then came the sudden panic, the sudden fear, that made Sango look around for a weapon, for anything that she could use to defend herself with. His body lifted from beside hers, his hand sliding up to cup her cheek, and Sango turned her head to look up at him, whether she wanted to or not. She tried to ignore the fact that she _did_ want to look up at him, that she wanted to see him as he talked._

_His hair was unbound, falling softly around his jaw line and barely touching the smooth skin of his shoulders. He looked perfectly human, despite the still unnatural beauty that refused to leave him. She felt herself start to fall into his grey eyes, losing herself in mirrors of violet and a ghostly haze… and she loved it. He wasn't using his powers on her. If she was, she would be able to see the colors around him that flared up when he used his skills. Whatever this was, it was natural._

_"Over your lifetimes, you have become this beautiful weapon, something from every man's dreams. You blush when you're complimented, demure, and you put out this outward appearance of being nothing but a shy girl sometimes. Then, however, you change. You become fierce, and protective, physically and mentally strong and challenging."_

_His fingers stroked her cheek gently. Sango was always surprised when this tender side came out in him. How could someone who was supposed to be cruel and soulless treat her so gently, and speak to her with such kind words? Her mouth fell open, her throat feeling dry._

_Miroku continued. "You're intelligent, and willful, and gorgeous." Sango blushed and looked away, lowering her eyes. He smiled, once again letting the tips of his fingers draw her gaze back up to him. "And you're a great actress. I'm never quite sure which side of you is the real one. The only thing that I'm sure is real is your anger. You're so full of it. Every time I look at you, it's the most predominant thing about you._

_"And then you laughed today. It was such a wonderful, free spirited, _simple_ laugh. I want…" Miroku suddenly stopped, staring at her. "This isn't just my dream, is it?"_

_"No," Sango said, pushing him off of her. He sat beside her in the bed, and she looked away from his exposure. The last thing she needed was his smart-ass comments if he caught her watching the way his pale skin moved over the muscles lining his body. Instead, she looked around at the room she knew frighteningly well, wondering where he had collected all she saw, and how. "I went to bed, I woke up here." She looked down at her hand. "It's not real. I know it's not real, but I can't seem to wake up from it. And it feels so real…" Her hand clenched._

_"You knew it was a dream, and you can't wake up, and yet you didn't fight back? Shouldn't you have been beating me senseless, demanding why I'm invading your dreams or putting my thoughts into your head? I am a telepath, you know," he said, almost sounding a bit cross that she hadn't thought it was his doing. "I _could_ do it, you know."_

_Sango nodded. "I didn't stop you because I know that this is well beyond your ability. I didn't realize that your mind had drifted to this place as well." She wrapped her arms around herself, cold. "Why are we connected like this?"_

_He made no move to help keep her warm. She would only reject his comfort. Miroku was just as curious, and he thought. "I am a telepath, and one of the strongest. I'm so good that I'm even able to read a few of _your_ emotions, Slayer. You copied my skill when I killed you in the life we met in before. Might it be because of that we now find ourselves sharing our dreams?"_

_Sango snorted. "Your idea makes sense, vampire, but don't get delusions of grandeur. Dreams are something which have good connotations. This may be your dream but it's my nightmare."_

_Miroku laughed a little, leaning over the bed to look at her as she sat on the edge of the mattress, her legs folded and her shoulders set. "Sango… you know, we're really not all that different. There's something in me that you like, admit it. That's why you didn't hunt me down as soon as you had fifty bucks to your name, just to get revenge for the sixties. It's because you and I, we're the same."_

_"No, we aren't! You're despicable! The things you do… the things you do disgust me!" She shuddered at the idea of being remotely similar to him. Sango turned to look at him, poking him in the chest as she spoke. "Furthermore, I like nothing about you! You're vile, and heartless, and… and…"_

_He grinned when she couldn't finish off her sentence. She had run out of good words to berate him with rather quickly. Miroku said nothing for a long moment, watching Sango as she pushed herself off the bed and began to pace the room. She wore the long t-shirt and the plaid pajama pants she always wore to bed, but even their baggy shapes didn't hide the grace in her limbs, the curves hidden underneath her clothes. His hungry grey eyes watched as her fingertips traced the artifacts hanging from the walls, her arm gracefully falling to her side so she could pick up one of the many statues of Buddha laying on the dresser._

_She sighed, her thumb brushing the man's smiling face. "It was wrong of me to say that to you today," she said, barely able to believe that she was actually speaking her heart to him. "About saying that you were the great seducer… it's the truth. I know. I've seen it in your mind. But I said it callously. You deserve to be that person, to have this life that you couldn't have when you were actually alive. But it's wrong that you kill people for it."_

_"I haven't killed anyone humans in a long time… not since you. That's four decades, more or less," he said casually._

_"And before then?"_

_Miroku pursed his lips as he though, reclining on the bed. "Before then, not for about for a hundred years. But the kill was a most foul one." Remembering all the blood—that precious waste—he sighed, starting to smile a little. "You would have liked it, Slayer. It was beautiful. Poetic justice. He was a very foul man, the things he did were disgusting even, as you said, to someone as vile and as heartless as myself. But, those are memories for another day. I prefer looking at this odd connection we now have. The truth is easier to say here, and the lies are harder to spit out, wouldn't you agree?"_

_Recalling the way that she had admitted that maybe he was a little justified in wanting to spend this life indulging in sex simply to satiate the curiosity created by the lack of physical intimacy in his life as a human, she nodded. She did have to admit that. Sango placed the Buddha statue gently back down on the dresser, still feeling his eyes watching her. "Yet you don't seem to fight it like I do," she said, though she didn't look at him. "You have accepted it. Don't you have anything you want to hide?"_

_"Not particularly," he said with a shrug. "My biggest secret is that I find you incredibly attractive. I've pretty much already let that cat out of the bag, so to speak, so I really have nothing else that I particularly want to hide. I'm not like you, Sango, in that respect. You don't want any of my kind to know you, not on any level. You command a certain degree of awe and respect, and that's how you like it."_

_She turned to look at him, obviously mad and her brown eyes became ignited. "It's so nice of you to know me better than I know myself."_

_He laughed, chuckling. "In all honesty, Slayer, I knew you since I last dreamt about you, last night. It was a beautiful dream." He was about to continue, teasing her with explicit details just to watch her become frustrated, but rather then get mad, she blushed deeply, looking down at the floor. Miroku paused. He slid off the bed, quietly approaching her. His long legs slowed to make smaller, catlike steps. Sango could see him coming, but where could she go? This was only a dream._

_"Let me guess," he said, in the silkier, pronounced voice he used sparingly around her. "It was my dream, and your nightmare?"_

_Sango said nothing. She refused to say anything on the matter, chanting the new mantra in her head. 'It was only a dream. This is only a dream. Nothing there was real. Nothing here is real.'_

_But by then he was so close her senses told her she was lying. When, but with him, had her dreams ever held such a real scent, such warmth, such texture? He smelled like sandalwood. God, how she had loved that smell even before she had met him, the memories it had brought up. His warmth wound around her until she found it hard to breathe, until the warmth seemed to be seeping into her very body. His arms reached around her, undoing the bun that held her long hair up. Her dark hair dropped around her shoulders, and he gently began to run his fingers through it._

_He looked down at her, her face not serene as it normally was, her eyes filled with apprehension, her lips parted. All her attention was focused on him, and it made Miroku feel like a god. But more enticing than that, were the colors that danced off her skin. She was aroused, she was longing for _him_. He smiled down at her. "Not entirely your nightmare, I see."_

_"How… aura…" She figured it out on her own, and looked up at him, perplexed, backing up a little and gripping the rim of the dresser. "How is it that I have an aura in this place but you don't? You seem, you feel perfectly human, except that there's such sensuality coming off of you, and such grace…"_

_"Perhaps that's because this is your dream too," he purred, slowly becoming closer and closer to him. His fingers gently caressed her cheek, his eyes gazing into hers before he looked down at her parted mouth. His breath was warm. "In this place, I am essentially human. That's how you want me. Face it, Sango, the only reason why you don't like me is because I'm a vampire."_

_"No I don't," she shuddered, tilting her face up to look at him squarely. She was about to continue, about to tell him how much she hated him when his lips suddenly covered hers. She had been kissed by vampires before. They had kissed her as if they were trying to draw out her soul, or taking advantage of her as she was unable to fight back, mocking her. His touch was nothing like that. His lips were oddly soft, and warm, pressing against hers lightly and then drawing away._

_It was nothing but a simple, chaste kiss._

_Sango felt like her insides had turned to jelly. She had always heard people talking about their insides churning, or butterflies trapped in their stomachs, knees knocking or the world shaking just from having someone kiss them, but she had always thought it was a pile of bull shit. Frankly, love was nothing but a series of chemical releases in the body including the same ones released in periods of nervousness and more carnal ones to make people aroused when they found a potential mate. That she was actually experiencing it…_

_She drew in her breath, the cold air nearly painful. He was still close, still staring at her, his grey-violet eyes laughing. She did like him. He was challenging, he was intelligent… it was the things that had come out of being a vampire that she hated. She hated that he always acted so superior. She hated that he had no sorrow or grief for all the human lives he had claimed over the year. She hated that he was her enemy. If he was human… she'd die to protect him. That smile, those eyes, that sharp wit and the way he manipulated words, she'd die willingly to protect those things._

If_ he were human._

_'But in this place, he is human. He's a human, with some powers… like me. In this place, he's like me. Can I… can I really…'_

_Yet she didn't have time to finish her thoughts before her body responded and her mind was silence for a very long, long time. Sango grabbed him, pressing her body flat against his and crushing her mouth to hers, her tongue gently stroking his full bottom lip to get his mouth to open. Miroku moaned in pleasure as the deep part that Sango normally kept carefully controlled gained power in the dream-world. She kissed him, as best and as clumsily as she knew how, though her heart was in it._

_Miroku's hands gripped her shoulders, and he gently guided her back to the bed. His lips slowly moved across hers, now and again drifting away. Slowly, Sango began to become accustomed to the movements, and Miroku felt like he was dying all over again. As clumsy, as one sided and demanding as her kiss was, he would give up the best whores he had experienced to have just one second of that kiss. It was strong, it was passionate… and she was a quick learner._

_If only Miroku knew just how quickly she could learn, he would have fought harder to get away from the dream world._

_-_

_He didn't sleep at all, in the dream-world. He stayed awake, staring at the roof of his four-poster bed, his arm wrapped around the dark-haired girl who slept soundly against him. Her scent had settled over everything in the room, her sheer presence making everything seem stronger, more important and special. But he didn't really notice this. He didn't even take notice of the texture of her skin, or the softness of her hair as he lazily began stroking it._

_He hadn't had a single thought in his head since he had collapsed against the bed, crying out loudly and she curled up next to him. It was instinct that had made him hold her. As the dawn broke in the window of the room, the tiny porthole over the bed, his mind slowly stirred from the shock he had experienced and he looked at her. _

_She was still sleeping, her eyes closed. Her long lashes contrasted sharply against her skin, her lips parted and still red from their kisses in the middle of the night. Her hand covered his heart, her leg rested over his. Her hair covered the pillow behind her, and strands of it fell over her shoulder. She looked so angelic when she slept._

_As he gazed at her, his expression slowly went from one of being dazed, to one of being confused as he suddenly wanted to wrap his other arm around her and hold her tightly. Before he could react to this new emotion, she yawned, stirring and lifting her head. Sango rubbed her eyes and looked up at him. She let out a small smile. "You're still here."_

_"I didn't really feel like leaving quite yet," he said casually. Sango's smile widened. He had never seen her smile, or seen a smile look so beautiful. How could her smile always make him feel like he was a god, immortal and in the midst of being silently worshipped?_

_She rested her head back against his shoulder, her fingertips starting to trace the outlines of his muscles and draw circles randomly on his chest. "Miroku," she purred, "something that you said last night made me remember something I meant to ask you. There's this woman named Kikyo Umbra at my school and she has this strange…"_

_"Kikyo?"__ Miroku bolted up, his expressive face now filled with horrified shock. This was not a good turn of events. 'God… shit! Kikyo! I have to warn Inuyasha. Wake up! Miroku, damn it, wake up this fucking instant!'_

_He began calling back to his own body, trying to wake up, but as urgent as his thoughts were, he didn't want to leave, not really. What sane man—vampire, werewolf or human—would actually want to leave a warm bed with a beautiful, naked woman? _

_Sango gripped his arm tightly, her brown eyes fierce. Her soft mouth was now drawn tight. "You know what she is, you know who she is. You tell me what that aura means right now!"_

_"She's a fucking ghoul!" he swore violently, his voice deep and barely hiding the franticness he felt. He had to return to be awake, he had to snap out of this dream before Inuyasha left. He had to warn his pack-mate! "She's fucking been trained to kill vampires, and her mark is Inuyasha! Now let me…"_

He never got finish. Instead he suddenly snapped up in bed, his chest heaving and his eyes wide. Sweat made his dark hair cling to his face and neck. He ran a trembling hand through it before he recalled what had gone on in the dream-world. Miroku felt a moment of pleasure before the frustration and the urgency came crashing back down. He leapt out of bed, and opened the door. Miroku marched straight to Inuyasha's door, pounding on it.

He didn't even notice that Sesshomaru and Rin were sitting in the living room, their heads close together as they conferred over some spell she had found and needed help deciphering. Rin noticed him, however. It was very hard not to notice a sweaty, pissed off, good looking, graceful and naked man wandering around the otherwise quiet apartment. She looked up from the book. "If you're looking for Inuyasha," she said, "he already left."

"When?"

"About five minutes ago." She watched, still not showing the slightest bit of distain or pleasure either way for a naked Miroku walking around, and she gestured to his room. Her voice stopped him from walking out the door. "Miroku, sir, you might want to get some clothes on first. It is rather illegal to wander around dressed in your birthday suit."

Miroku marched back into his room.


	19. You Alone are Protected

Author's Notes: Okay, so, as you can tell by the date, this actually starts in the morning, while Sango and Miroku are still asleep (ah, together, more or less), to tell us what else is going on in the world. ::grins:: Just though I'd point that out for those of you who are like me and may miss that little bit. To explain the time thing, it's really quite easy (Aamalie, and I'm sure other people were thinking it): Miroku is a vampire. He sleeps during the day. So he and Sango slept through the rest of the night, and the entire day, for him to wake up just after the sun went down.

Ninalee-chan: If I did have the ability to write two against one, I would have made it Inuyasha and Miroku versus Kikyo in a second! I wish I had more fluff in this one, but the conversation Miroku and Rin will soon be having will make up for _everything_…. ::grins evily::

BluPuppy: Oh, she does indeed. I figured I'd go for the whole high-school crush approach. But come on guys! Do you really think that Kohaku, brother to the slayer, good buy extraordinaire, would be out of the game so quickly?

Siren: Not really. Kikyo won't go after Miroku because her target is Inuyasha, but there is an animosity between them because Miroku keeps coming between them both. Last time they met, he had helped Inuyasha try to kill Kikyo (I can't remember where I say that, but it's written between the lines, at least, and they never leave each other), he saved Inuyasha the first time they met, and now he's playing the protective older brother again.

Raivyn: You're in luck! At first I thought that he wasn't coming in again until the epilogue, and then I remembered a nice fat scene where Kouga meets Inuyasha. ::drum roll::

Kag-lover: Sadly, not too often. She's just the secondary character in this story.

Now, I suppose I should explain why Sango jumped Miroku (pretty much). It does seem a little OOC for this story, I agree. You wouldn't believe how much of a (expletive deleted) it was to try and get them together (as I promised a happy ending). So, there are a couple of um… loopholes, I gave myself for a way out.

First of all, Miroku in the dream, wasn't a vampire. If you read it again, his aura was completely human. Sango and Miroku's characters in the story are very much alike (they're both the protective older siblings, as we see with Inuyasha and Kohaku, they're both passionate as saw through the dance scene, they both fight in their jobs, they both have seen things no one else needs to see, they both have supernatural powers, and the list goes on) but the one thing that keeps Sango from really being with Miroku is the fact that he's a vampire. So, in the dream world, he's completely human. It allows whatever remaining animosity there is to disappear because she doesn't feel threatened by him.

Also, there's the fact that it was just a dream. A lot of the time, people do things in dreams or fantasies that they wouldn't normally do in real life. It's just unfortunate for Sango that when she acts in a way different to the stoic persona she has going on, someone is there with her and remembers it.

Anyway, enough talk. _Enjoy!_

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen: **

**You Alone are Protected**

Wednesday, September 30th, 10 am

Kagome had some things to do. She hated what she had to do to her mother, but it was a necessary evil at that moment. Kagome lied to her mother and said that she didn't feel well enough to go to school. Mrs. Higurashi, who loved her daughter and didn't think Kagome had it in her to lie, did nothing to check Kagome to see if she was really sick. If Kagome felt that she wasn't feeling well enough to go to school, then who was she to make her daughter go? Nonetheless, after Kagome told her this she frowned and made the worried expression all mothers do, tucking her daughter into bed and telling her to rest.

She rested for all of about an hour after her mother left. It was a little nice to sleep in. When she got up, she phoned Sango, but she didn't get an answer. Pouring herself a bowl of cereal, Kagome hung up the phone with a shrug. 'I guess she must still be asleep. If I had to be awake all night and then found out I had the day to myself, I'd certainly sleep all day.'

Eating her cereal at the kitchen table, she finished it off quickly and then looked at the bandages that still covered various parts of her. Kagome began to work at taking them all off. It felt satisfying to throw the bandages on the kitchen table and to flex her muscles again for the first time. 'Inuyasha's blood certainly did help… maybe vampires have their good points after all.' A moment later she recalled how vampires gained their powers and she decided that no matter how powerful the healing potential of their blood was, it wasn't worth the cost of someone losing their humanity and living off of human blood.

It was an interesting position which Kagome found herself in. She had thought about her next move for a long time. Because Inuyasha had allowed her to see his memories in such an intimate way, when she could feel his pain and hear his rationality behind his actions, when she was practically omniscient about what and why and how he had done what he had done. She could not hate him for the horrible things in his past. His rationality was far from being perfectly logical, and many times he had been overly aggressive in moments so powerfully emotional that even Kagome felt herself consumed by the desire to kill to protect. She wasn't really trying to dismiss the things he had done… but they _had_ made him who he was, their shadows reflecting upon the still human part of Inuyasha…

And so when she flicked on the light to the basement and descended down the stairs it wasn't out of desire for justice or hatred. It was because she had promised Inuyasha that she would weave a spell for him, a spell to punish him for when he killed her. Kagome hadn't been saying that just to appease him; she'd promised him, and she needed to keep her promise. The spell she needed was in the basement.

The basement was dark, even with the light on. Kagome hadn't been down in the basement for some years, yet somehow she had never forgotten the musty smell, or the feeling of suddenly being very cramped. Her heart thumped heavily in her chest, and her throat felt constricted. Nor had she forgotten the feeling of power that squatted underneath the scent of mothballs, waiting for her to come closer before it tried to draw her in and poison her.

Mrs. Higurashi kept all the dark spells in the basement. Kagome had never understood why, but as her feet touched the basement floor and the feeling of the aggressive power suddenly increased, she began to understand why she kept them isolated. Knowing that there were spells in there to make people fall in love with her, to punish the people that had always teased her…

Kagome pinched herself as she felt the musky scent starting to try and persuade her. She sought only one spell, and she would use that one spell for a good purpose, rather than what it was truly meant for. The tall bookcases were covered in dust. She dusted off the spine to one of the many books in the basement, and her fingertips felt warm and sticky, as if covered in blood. Kagome shuddered and wiped the dust on her jeans. When she found the book she wanted, she pulled it off the shelf. It landed with a heavy thud, like the sound that a dead body makes hitting a floor in movies and television. It kicked up dust that made her cough, and she struggled to get it open. Kagome flipped through the charred pages, until she found the name of the book which held the series of spells she needed.

Several hours later, Kagome had found the spell in question, and her arm was sore from pinching herself. She smiled as she read over the things she was going to need for the spell. She began to copy out the spell into a notebook. Inuyasha's hair would be no problem to get. His blood, that would require a little bit more effort to get. But when she got down to the third last item on the spell, she let out a little sound of disappointment.

She needed the blood of Sesshomaru.

For a moment she considered giving up, but the drive for power that coated the basement proved to be helpful, for once. She decided to continue to copy out the spell. So what if she didn't have Sesshomaru's blood? It couldn't be _impossible_ to get! Kagome smiled a little. 'I'll have to see Inuyasha tonight to ask him about it.'

Any excuse to see Inuyasha was worth its weight in gold.

-

As soon as sundown began to come, Rin snuck away from her house and proceeded to go to Miroku's house. When she got there she found Sesshomaru sitting in a chair with such perfect posture she was a little envious. His long fingers held a thick book open and perched in front of him on the table. She shut the door quietly, trying not to disturb him, and proceeded to remove her shoes. She teetered on one leg, the other bent as she tried to undo her shoe laces.

Sesshomaru, however, had heard her coming long ago. The vampire didn't even bother to look up from his book and verify that she was, in fact, teetering. "You're going to fall over undoing you shoes like that," he warned.

"I am…" Her leg gave way and she fell to the ground. Rin swore, picking herself up and dusting her clothes off. She shook her braids, trying to appear composed, and looked up. Sesshomaru had calmly lowered the book enough to look at her, those composed gold eyes filled with a hint of laughter. "Sorry for disturbing your reading," she apologized with a blush, slowly edging a little closer. He didn't stop looking at her, which made her feel nervous and like she had to do something. "What are you reading anyway?"

Sesshomaru was a little surprised. This girl _still_ didn't fear him. Instead she was hovering close to him… and he didn't mind it. Normally he would have killed such humans for trying to intrude upon his business, or for polluting the air with the stench of their decay, but this girl smelled wonderful. Not only was she brave and strong, but she could also be sweet and delicate. She was much like the Slayer in that aspect, but this was natural. 'Ah,' he thought, 'Miroku has done a good job selecting a human to be turned into a vampire.'

And how had she learned to smell like such natural wildflowers in late September? It smelled as if she had been playing in a field of daisies and sunflowers. Rin fiddled with the orange sweater she wore. He placed the book down and indicated that she should draw a chair over. "I am trying to find a spell to make a homing device so I can find something I need. I have found one."

"Then why don't you try it?" she asked, looking it over. A door behind them opened and closed and Inuyasha emerged. He grabbed a blood pack from the fridge and waltzed out, not even bothering to grab his shoes. Rin ignored him, until he passed her a cookie on his way out. Then she smiled at him. "Have fun, Inuyasha."

"I will," he said with a cheeky grin, winking at her. He opened the door and paused, looking over his shoulder at the two forms looking over the large book. Inuyasha shook his head. He didn't like Rin being around Sesshomaru, but all they were doing was reading a book. Surely that couldn't hurt. And once Miroku woke up, no doubt he would start teaching Rin. Inuyasha shut the door and stepped out into the world, the night crisp and clear. Kagome had woken him up with a call on his cell phone and had asked him to come over.

It was a wonderful way to start the evening.

Rin read over the spell, and her nose scrunched. Now she knew why he wasn't trying it. It did seem a little bit complicated, didn't it? "As long as you have something to connect the two pieces together, it should be easy to get everything else. Miroku already has all of these herbs, and I have a white candle you can use, sir." She thought a moment. "Unless you can't do magic, in which Miroku and I could do this spell together. I've always wanted to do something as complicated as this, rather than undoing locks or making fire. Can you do magic, sir?"

Sesshomaru's shoulders stiffened. "Of course I, Sesshomaru, am able to do magic."

"I see," she said, her smile wavering a little. She looked back down at the book, her cheeks a deep shade of pink. "I'm sorry for offending you, sir. The only reason why I asked is because Miroku can do magic, and I know that you're Miroku's father, but you aren't his real father, now are you? I wasn't certain if his talents were hereditary. Maybe they were from his mortal father or mother, the same way that I got my magic from my mother and my father is perfectly mortal."

"You talk too much, Rin."

"I'm nervous, sir. People have a tendency to talk a lot when they're nervous."

This interested him. He stopped reading over the spell to look at her. "Why are you nervous of me? Many humans are scared of me because I am able to kill them, yet my son has claimed you as his student, and you alone are safe. Your mother and brother are already dead, so you don't have to fear that I will hurt them, and even if I took your father from you, you would still have a family here who would look after you. So what reason have you, you alone who are protected, to be fearful?"

She went to answer when Miroku's bedroom door suddenly broke open. Rin turned into the direction of the sound and rolled her eyes. 'Sesshomaru needs to make these guys learn a bit of decency around females concerning nudity, instead of just hunting.' She pointed back at Miroku's bedroom after telling him that Inuyasha had already left, and said something about putting on clothes.

Rin turned back around in her chair, and neither of them spoke or moved until after Miroku had left and they had some real privacy. Rin sat on her knees on the chair and turned to see Sesshomaru; on this level she could see him eye to eye. "I _am_ scared of you because of who you are and what you can do, even if I may be safe from the fact that you are a vampire and that you prey on people like me, sir. But what scares me even more, what makes me feel nervous, sir, is your face.

"You're so unexpressive. You do smile, you do frown and look serious, like other people do, but your eyes are so unattached to the rest of you. They are always so serene. You could be in a fit of madness, and your eyes would still look like you weren't trying to feed or punish, but like they do now, when you're here reading your book. I can talk to you, and you can smile and laugh, and it will all be a façade. I like being able to know how people are really feeling, and I can't get that with you because you never drop that higher-than-though attitude and let yourself be…" She searched for a word, and came up with only passable one. "You never let yourself be alive, you just sit removed from the rest of society."

He was impressed. Her speech had been far from the most eloquent thing he had ever heard, but it was good nonetheless. Somehow, her frankness and the lack of poetry in her speech made it seem real, more like she knew what she was talking about rather than adding in words to make her argument sound more impressive. Just as she had predicted, he said nothing, he only went back to his books.

Sesshomaru, Rin was learning, was pretty, but was a stick in the mud.

-

Wednesday, September 30th, 8:45 pm

Sango landed on the ground under her window, muttering curses. If her detention wasn't done soon, she was going to have a very large dent in the ground under her window. She doubted very much that her Mom would really figure out that she was jumping out of the window to sneak out at night—which was the truth—because the window was too high. But the dent would look quite suspicious.

'They get snow here too… what am I going to do when the snow gets here? It's not going to be like the city where the sheer heat of all the lights and cars make the snow turn into rain. They're going to be getting snow, and I'm going to be leaving trails.' She looked up at the roof and sighed. Sango didn't really like using the rooftops because they were very hard to fight on. They were not only on weird angles, but slippery, but if that was what it took was running on rooftops to get around in wintertime, then she would do it.

And pray that no one cleaned their rooftops the next morning.

It was colder now, as though winter had decided to spring her trap on the world earlier than normal. Sango's breath was visible in the air. She hugged her jacket a little closer, and she broke off into a run, her long hair bouncing behind her. She had decided to go through the residential areas that night. She wasn't quite sure why, but deep down she knew that it was because going near the waterfront or The Wall meant there was a higher chance of meeting Miroku has he hunted for food.

As wrong as his hunting was and as much as the idea of him eating someone made her want to drive a steak through his heart, she wasn't quite ready to face him after the dream they had both experienced.

-

Miroku found Inuyasha as he was returning from Kagome's home. Miroku had scoured the city looking for Inuyasha, and after an hour or two had panicked and had thought that Kikyo had already gotten to his pack-mate and had actually managed to bring down the silver-haired vampire. To show his appreciation for Inuyasha being alive, Miroku walked right up to him and punched him in the jaw so hard that Inuyasha staggered back a few steps. His eyes were black with rage. "Where the _fuck_ were you?"

Inuyasha looked hurt, and she held his hand over his jaw. "I was at Kagome's…"

He stared at his young blood-brother a moment, and then Miroku slapped his own forehead, kicking at the red fire hydrant on the sidewalk beside him. "Fuck! Kagome's! Why didn't I think of that first?!"

It felt a little odd for Inuyasha as he stepped forward and patted Miroku's shoulder in consolation. Normally he was the one who needed calming down, so he wasn't really quite sure how to go about calmed down Miroku. The last time Miroku had lost his temper had been two hundred years ago, more or less. Nor was he sure why Miroku appeared so anxious to find him. "Miroku, calm…."

He whirled on his pack mate, grabbing Inuyasha's shirt and pushing him into the brick wall behind the human-looking Inuyasha. His face was close, his breath hot on Inuyasha's skin and he could practically feel the worry and the hunger coming off of Miroku. "Do you know how much shit you're in right now? _Kikyo_ is out there right now, Inuyasha!"

His brown eyes widened. "K… Kikyo? But that was years ago! She should be dead by now! She should have died of old age or some crap like that! And how in the world did she even find me?"

"She's a fucking ghoul, Inuyasha. She's not going to die of old age." He dropped Inuyasha, looking around them as if Kikyo could be lurking around the nearest corner. His voice lowered, and even Inuyasha had to strain to her Miroku's deep voice. "Seeing as how your humanity and your compassion kept you from killing her outright the last time you encountered her all because of her predicament of being a ghoul in the first place, I'm going to take care of you for her. But you aren't allowed to leave the house until she's six feet under."

"But," he protested, even though this was the opening he had been hoping for. It was just Inuyasha's nature to be a pain in the ass. Miroku didn't mind though, as his constant rescuing of his younger brother meant that life was never dull. After seven hundred years of being alive, keeping life interesting without Inuyasha in it would have been impossible to do.

"No buts, Inuyasha!" he hissed, his black eyes snapping back on the younger vampire. "Not only will this keep you safe, staying at home means that Sesshomaru won't be on your ass to go and kill Kagome, now will he? So you'll be safe, and Kagome will be safe."

He looked at Miroku stubbornly and dug into his pocket to pull out a small glass vile. He held it up before them both. "Fine. I'll stay at home and hide, Miroku, so long as you get a bit of blood from Sesshomaru and give it to Kagome. Don't ask why, because it's really none of your fucking business, brother. Just do it. He won't think anything of it if you ask for a little bit of it and then happen to mention that it's for one of those scientific experiments you always used to do."

They stared at each other a moment and then Miroku snatched the tiny vial from Inuyasha's hand. "Fine," he agreed, stuffing it into his back pocket. He was so mad at Inuyasha for wandering around when Kikyo was about that he had lost control of his perfect human form. He was in his vampire form, and all the tiny things he had done to make himself appear more alive had disappeared. His face was perfectly pale, and his breath wasn't visible in the air, like Kagome's had been when she had bid goodbye to Inuyasha. "Now get home. I need to go and feed."

Miroku disappeared into the shadows created by the lamplight, leaving Inuyasha to trudge to his new jail cell.

-

"It's done," Rin sighed, her small hands falling on her knees. She looked at the map she held. A pale spot glowed on the map where the third and final piece of the puzzle Sesshomaru had mentioned was hiding. Her pert nose and mouth wrinkled in confusion as she tilted her head to try and see the map better. Didn't that spot look vaguely like where…

Before she could see it better, Sesshomaru had rolled it up and was placing it into his leather trench coat. The tails of it disturbed the air as he swept by her, making her black bangs dance over her forehead. Rin's wide eyes followed him, and she felt a little hurt that he hadn't even said thank you. She leapt up, following him across the loft. "You're leaving me?"

Her voice was quiet, and Sesshomaru felt a small stab of guilt when he heard it. For one so young, she had a way of bending men to her will already. Children were growing up so fast in this new time… or at least they seemed to be. Long ago a child her age would have a belly swollen with child, and to be able to carry that burden took a maturity indeed. But those girls had not been able to control their men until much later, and now young girls seemed to be able to do anything they wanted to men, so long as they played their cards correctly.

"I am going out to feed," he stated, his eyes briefly looking over his broad shoulder at her. His hand brushed his hair back over his shoulder as he turned back to the door. He reached out, and still her voice stopped him.

"Why? Can I come with you?"

"Of course you may not," Sesshomaru said, turning to look at her fully. He blinked, his gold eyes momentarily hidden behind his long eyelashes. In that brief moment when he had first looked at her, he had felt his control break and he nearly grabbed for her to sink his long teeth into her soft neck. He had not eaten for ours, and he was hungry. "I'm going to go and feed. You should not see something like that until you're ready to."

"But I've seen stuff like that before! I… I mean, I've watched Angel, and Buffy, and Dracula, and read a lot of stuff by L. J. Smith that has vampires in it, and as soon as I'm away from my father and I can get a bit of privacy, I'm going to read Anne Rice. But I have seen Interview…."

"Lies," he said simply, giving his head a bit of a shake. "Your media has conned lies. Not all of us kill in the same way. Miroku prides himself on being a seducer, of making clean, neat kills. Inuyasha prides himself on making the kills as disfiguring as possible so that the kill appears more impressive. He still hasn't learned not to play with his food."

Rin gulped as the tall vampire began to advance on her. His deep voice was soothing, but terrifying also. His silver hair swirled around him as he moved, each one of foot steps following hers exactly. Her heart pounded in his chest as she watched his already perfect face become so haunting that it was hard to breath and that she found her leg muscles starting to weaken. Her voice was choked. "And you… you, Sesshomaru, sir? How do you feed?"

His hand reached out, and she winced when she thought that he was going to grab her and bring her to him. Instead, his hand ruffled her hair, and she opened her eyes to find him kneeling down on her level. "Let's hope that you never find out, Rin."

They stared at each other a moment, and Rin did not register the slow movement he made. Sesshomaru was kneeling in front of her, and then the next thing she knew his eyelashes were brushing her cheek as his warm lips touched hers. Her eyes gently closed as she enjoyed the kiss, enjoyed the way his lips touched hers and the weight of his hand on her shoulder.

He broke the kiss and stood up to his full height. "I will go out and feed. When I return, I will walk you home to make sure you get there safe and sound. I doubt that my sons would like it if you didn't return home because something happened to you."

She blushed, and he left, leaving her behind to ponder over her first kiss. She touched her lips gently, and her legs finally gave out, buckling under her. Rin smiled deliriously and collapsed the rest of the way. She lay on the cold tile of the kitchen in the vampires' loft, smiling like a teenager in love. Rin giggled loudly. "Sesshomaru kissed me…"

-

It was four am. The bars were all closed, so Miroku used his nose to hunt. He stood in the middle of the street, the wind pulling at his jean jacket, and pulling at his black hair. It hung down, around his face as he had not had time to do anything with it. Getting dressed had been enough as a pain in the ass as it was. His senses expanded, the houses becoming dotted with various colors. Behind him and to the right was the color he sought. The upstairs bedroom window was leaking with the aura of a woman sexually aroused. The room was practically dripping with it.

He stood underneath the door, closing his eyes and relaxing as best as a hungry vampire could. His mind floated up to the room, and into the mind of the woman laying on the bed, gasping as her dream aroused her. He stepped into the dream as easily as a human stepped in and out a car. Looking around, he sniffled in disgust at the basicness of the dream. Often had he seemed the damsel in distress fantasy, and wondered if women would ever think of something else besides being carried away by white nights.

Manipulating the dream was easy. In a flash he had become the knight on the white horse, staring up at the tower. A moment later and the sword he held was stained red with blood. Miroku smiled in satisfaction. He looked up at the tower, knowing hat the woman was somewhere in there. "Lady," he bellowed, "come to your window! I have fought through many creatures to save you! Let me look upon the beauty of which legends are made!"

'Come on, bitch,' the mind in his body snarled, staring up at the window. 'Open the fucking window and let me come in. All I need is an invitation… even a silent one meant for a knight in a dream will do, just open the window…'

The window slid open about two inches. It was all the invitation he needed. He focused his mind and his whole body disappeared. It looked as if he had suddenly exploded into dust like vampires did on television. However, he had merely turned himself into mist. It was the trick he relied on when he needed to be sneaky. He was, after all, an ambusher, and who would ever suspect that a _fog_ caused lightheadedness, that a _fog_ was following them on purpose? It rose to the window, slipping through the holes in the screen before piling together in the bedroom and once again becoming a man.

In the dream, Miroku climbed the tower and into the bedroom of the princess in distress. He gripped her arms as she flung herself at him, telling him to take her away from the horrid place that had kept her prisoner for so long. Miroku wondered what would happen if he changed their surroundings from the Disney-like version of medieval times to the real thing. No, it would probably upset her and then she might wake up.

'Not quite yet, little bird,' he crooned, spinning her around and picking her up. He placed her on the bed and sat beside as, in real life, Miroku sat on the bed of the slumbering woman. He grinned, and the woman felt her breath catch from the flash of his white teeth and they way his laughing eyes brightened. 'There is something I want from you first.'

The woman's dream image licked her lips. She couldn't recall the last time she'd had such a vivid dream. She didn't know how her mind had come up with the image of a man with delinquent black hair or grey eyes and a charming smile that made her insides feel like jelly, but she loved him. His voice, so deep and enchanting, made her mouth water. His fingertips brushed her cheek and she felt herself long for more of his touch. 'What do you want?'

'Just a simple kiss,' he purred, leaning down and kissing her. The woman responded eagerly, and his hands ran over her body. Unable to control himself, as Miroku's mental projection touched her breast, so too did the real Miroku's hand cover her breast. The woman gasped loudly, both in illusion and reality, but did not awaken. Even if she wanted to, Miroku made sure that her escapes were closed off unless she _really_ fought to get out or until he was done. He hated it when his dinner woke up before he could feed.

In the dream, the woman shuddered and moaned as his hands roamed her body and his warm mouth kissed her neck. In reality, the woman shuddered and moaned as his hands roamed her body and his warm mouth kissed her neck. In the dream, the woman put up no resistance as he gently bit her neck. In reality, the woman put up no resistance as he gently bit her neck.

Miroku loved being a vampire sometimes, as, in the dream the woman moaned in pleasure from the way his hand played underneath her skirt and in reality the woman moaned in pleasure from the way his hand played underneath her nightgown.

-

When he was on his way home, he recognized the familiar gait walking on the other side of the street. Feeling giddy from the blood that circulated his body, he changed his direction and came up behind her. "Hi," he said, ducking as she whirled around with a punch aimed precisely at the point he used to be.

He spun so that he was once again at her back, grinning. "Are you sure that you're well enough to be out of bed?" he asked, again dodging her punch.

Sango lowered into a fighting stance, her brown eyes watching him carefully. What game was Miroku playing? If Sango said no, she was going to be escorted home again, and Sango didn't want to show anymore weakness in front of Miroku. For that matter, she didn't really want to see him period, even if he was a sight for sore eyes, as disheveled as his hair was. But if she said yes, then he was going to assume she was ready for the 'fair fight' he had mentioned earlier, and she wasn't well enough yet to take him on and live. "That's none of your business of I feel."

He thought about this a moment and shrugged with a little sigh. His eyes closed in defeat. "You're right. How you feel is none of my business." Sango relaxed a little, until his eyes opened that brilliantly clear color looked directly at her. It was unnerving, that violet gaze looking right at her and seeing the person she was outside of the crystallized exterior. His voice was gentle and clear, and he took a little step forward. "But I do care how you feel."

She didn't say anything. She wasn't really quite sure what to say. Sango just stared at him as he reached out, his fingers stroking her long hair and slowly trailing down her neck, his hand resting on her shoulder. His eyes never left hers, not even for a half a second. "I do care…"

"Why?" she asked in a sudden breathy shudder. She was confused by him.

He stared at her a moment longer and then suddenly pulled away from her. "I don't know. I was hoping that maybe you could tell me." They stared at each other uncomfortably, and Miroku was the first one to break the stare. "Well, I should be getting back. Sesshomaru s home alone and…"

"_Sesshomaru_?" She gaped at him, and then turned around so fast, running away from him with such speed that he was a little astonished.

Miroku wondered what he had said that made her run away. Finding nothing, he shrugged, still feeling high from the fresh blood in his body, and whistled a happy tune as he walked away.

-

She watched as he left the house, walking away dabbing at his mouth lightly. He didn't appear the least bit ashamed of what he had done, and he sighed as he tried to wipe away the dots of blood on his clothes, only to find he had waited too long and the red liquid had soaked into the fabric. Kikyo was crouched on a rooftop, trying her best to ignore the cold that sunk into her clothes from having stayed still for so long.

Gripping the drainpipe in front of her, her brown eyes followed the silver haired man as he walked past her. She licked her lips nervously, getting ready for the attack. The moment he was past her, she dropped down from the roof. She landed quietly, but he still heard her, slowly turning to see what had landed behind him. Kikyo lunged forward, her stake in her hand in an attempt to impale his heart before he had the chance to attack her.

"Die, Inuyasha!"

She struck the spot dead on, and was a little surprised at how much muscle she needed to use to drive the stake through his flesh. Blood coated the white dress shirt he wore under his leather trench coat, and she leaned forward more, well aware of how dangerous it was to get close to a vampire. Kikyo didn't care anymore. She wanted him dead. She wanted Inuyasha _dead_.

His deep voice laughed at her, an elegant and clawed hand reaching around and lacing into her hair. His nails clawed her scalp, and she hissed in pain, feeling warmth on her skin. She was bleeding. Thank god Inuyasha had already fed, otherwise the scent of his enemy's blood might make him go into a frenzy. Kikyo had heard of that happening. But, there was something odd with his voice…

She looked up at the silver-haired prey she had been following, and gasped in surprise. It wasn't Inuyasha. It looked like Inuyasha, though this man was older and more defined, but clearly, it was not Inuyasha. She cursed herself, realizing that this man didn't have any ears, and that she should have been paying more attention. Kikyo hadn't known that silver-haired demons were so common!

Refusing to let go of the stake lodged in the man's chest, Kikyo and the vampire faced each other off, the man snarling with glowing red eyes and thick fangs. Her glare was nothing in comparison. Tightening his grip on her long hair, he pulled and suddenly flung her away. She landed on the frozen ground, her clothes tearing and small cuts appearing on the side she landed on from the rocks on the earth. Kikyo immediately began getting back up again, stopping when the man calmly reached down and pulled the stake out of his own chest.

His shirt had been broken, droplets of his blood mingling with that of his victim. There was a gaping hole in his chest, and for a moment Kikyo could see the bones that had stopped her from reaching his heart, see red blood ooze from the torn flesh and run down his white shirt. Her mouth fell open in horror, and the man smiled at her disgusted expression. She watched as the wound closed.

'But… but _how_?' she wondered, as he threw down the stake and walked away, leaving her there. Kikyo knew she was lucky just still being alive, but she wasn't certain how her opponent was calmly walking away. He was a vampire, she knew she wasn't wrong about that. Wood was supposed to poison vampires. Even if she hadn't managed to strike his heart, there was no way he should have been able to recover that quickly. Logically, the man should have been on the ground and near to death.

Kikyo had mistaken Sesshomaru for Inuyasha that night, but there was one other thing that she had not counted on.

He wasn't planning on leaving her alive for very long.

* * *

-To Be Continued 


	20. Gifts and Curses

AN: I am glad to see that everyone liked the Rin/Sesshy parts. I was a little nervous about it, actually, but it seems it was well received! And everyone gets free sour blue raspberries with this chapter because it finally got over 100, 000 words!

Aamalie: Neither Kohaku nor Sango have the final item which holds the last instruction to the spell.

Blood Red Emerald: Ow. That was a little harsh, don't you think? I mean, I love Kikyo, personally. I want to give her and Inuyasha a big bear hug and make it all better.

Demon Exterminator Barbie: I don't know. I thought it was a little creepy myself. Sweet, but creepy. Sesshy's a little crazy in this fic. ::winces::

Starzki: I wish I had your basement. Ours was just plain old _cold_. And it had a lot of spiders. Which scared me when I was little.

Fireblade: I loved your parody! Lol!

Chadrific: Are you _sure_ that you figured out what Kagome is trying to do? I like plot holes, after all. Maybe it's all a giant twist. But I also like Miroku being the "big brother" type. It suits him so well.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Thank you very much! I like giving Rin a bit of spunk. And I am shamefully prideful—is that an oxymoron?—of the MS conflict!

Ninalee-chan: Kohaku does have his work cut out for him, yes, but the hearts of girls are fickle, and deep down, Rin knows that all she likes about him is his looks. She's realizing that he's a stick in the mud, and that he's not much fun to be around. She's young, she still needs someone to play with, and he's not exactly the playful type. Deep down, I think that Rin likes Miroku much more than she does Sesshomaru because of the fact that he really does act like a big brother, while Sesshomaru's parental act is abolished to reveal the ah… despot, I think, within. And while Kikyo's death is not as dramatic or as descriptive as I want it to be—I purposefully avoided it so that I don't have to deal with the possibilities of depending on clichéd lines—you've given me a lot to think about with the Sesshomaru/Rin relationship.

That's part of what I like about writing, I guess. Once you finish a story, it's never really done. I don't want that to happen to this story. I want it to be completely finished.

As for the map, a quick recap: Miroku/Sesshy have two thirds of a recipe for the spell to make vampires impervious to sunlight. The third piece is lost, so Rin and Sesshy wove a spell to make the spot highlight on a map. The map is to locate the third part of the spell. You'll never guess where it is!

Enjoy, everyone.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty**

(She is the one), but I have a purpose,  
(she is the one), and I have to fight this,  
(she is the one), a villian I can't knock down.

(She is the one), all that I wanted,  
(she is the one), and I will be haunted,  
(she is the one), this gift is my curse for now.

-Gifts and Curses, by Yellowcard

**Gifts and Curses**

Thursday, September 31st, 9 am

The map was complete. The next morning, as Inuyasha and Miroku slept soundly, Sesshomaru left the loft and proceeded to use the map, the blinking dot indicating the location of the final piece to the puzzle Miroku had found within the jade box. He was slightly astonished when he found himself looking up at a school. Not just any school, however. It was a high school; the most depressing, smelly, and foully-infested type of school imaginable.

Sighing, he folded the magical map and entered the school. After walking through the doors, he found empty hallways jutting off in the different directions. The tiles on it were fake marble, and the heels of his leather boots clicked against the floor as he walked. He looked around as he stood at the crossroads. Ahead of him was the office where, according to many signs by the entrance, he was "supposed to report" for "a visitor's pass." He snorted. If anyone actually asked him for a pass, he'd just kill them. It wouldn't make much of a difference. None of the people there were actually strong enough to kill him, or even hurt him.

He sniffed, the scent of formaldehyde from the science classrooms upstairs making his nose itch. It was disdainful, the scent. Worse was the idea behind it all. Human beings were such hypocrites. They longed for people like him to be real, longed for these people who were supposedly immortal and feared light to be real, to come to them and drink from them and be their tamed predator… and they could be. Sesshomaru had lived one lifetime by living with a woman as her lover, drinking from her. That had been a glorious lifetime. Yet she had been a rarity, as most people found out that vampires were real and were horrified, doing anything they could to pretend that they didn't know what really lurked out there in the night.

In the same way humans spoke of how they needed to conserve the planet and her resources, and yet they slaughtered animals for food, for clothes… and now in the name of science. And still they hated him and his children for hunting food in order to survive.

Such hypocrites!

But there was another scent. It was old, older than many of the vampires he had made, though nowhere near as old as himself. It was the scent of a true demon. He looked down at the direction it was coming from, where an arrowed sign pointed to one of the many doors in the stretch of hallway. 'Library'.

He smiled.

-

Down eight classrooms from the main set of doors, Kikyo stopped talking mid-sentence. The students shifted uncomfortably in their seats as she didn't continue immediately. Instead, her eyes were focused on the door, though the students were sure her real gaze was somewhere further away. Her mind seemed lost in space.

Her heart pounded in her breast, slow and steady, yet each beat seemed to want to make her heart shatter into pieces. She could feel the predator in her start trying to rise to the surface. There was a vampire on the premises, she saw certain of it, yet it was impossible. No vampire would come out during the day unless they were suicidal, and it surely couldn't have snuck into the school during the night!

She was curious as to how this happened, but the part of Kikyo that wasn't human, the part that she hated and that she longed to be rid of, hated that another vampire was on her premises. This was her territory, and no blood-sucking leech was going to intrude on it. She shut the textbook from which she had been reading, making some of the kids in her class jump from surprise.

Kikyo was about to walk straight of the classroom before she remembered that she had a class of children she was supposed to be watching and teaching. She calmly fixed her hair. That was no problem to fix. She held out her textbook to one of the more responsible students in the classroom and told them that she needed to do something important before she once again forgot about it. "I'll be back in five minutes."

Not bothering with threats about what would happen if she found out people were misbehaving she left the classroom, shutting the door behind her. Sighing, she leaned against it, her hand still on the doorknob. That solved the problem of what to do with her charges, but what was she supposed to do for a weapon?

Kikyo was well trained, maybe even the best of the best, but part of being the best meant that she wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to hunt down a vampire without a weapon. She remembered she had a pencil in her hand still. She glared at the stupid yellow pencil. It was hardly as sturdy or as reliable as a _real_ stake, but it would do for now. She could always break a chair or something if it really came to that.

She followed the scent down the hallway.

By the time she had left her classroom, Sesshomaru had already entered the library. A young woman sat behind a tall desk, only the top of her head visible. Her face was pale, her hair white. He wondered why he thought she was young when her hair was pure white. Maybe it was her obviously small size, or maybe it was just because he of all people knew that silver hair didn't mean one was old.

The air was full of the scent of a demon. He approached the woman, trying not to sniff disdainfully at the smell of musty books. Sesshomaru peered over the edge of the desk, and sneered openly. This was no time to be discreet. "Kanna. Fancy meeting you here."

"Seshsomaru," the small woman said. Her voice was monotonous, making her appear perfectly calm, but he could pick up on the scent of fear on her body. Just because she was so removed from society that she had lost all ability to communicate by her tone of voice, it didn't mean that her body had stopped releasing scents the way it normally did. "Fancy meeting you again. Haven't you died yet?"

"I was hoping that you'd do the honor first," he said in a deadly sweet voice. He leaned a little further over the desk. "Enough pleasantries. I'm looking for something. A canopic jar. Do you have one?"

Her face seemed to pale even more, if that were even possible. The anger in her cheeks, however faint, seemed like bright red in comparison to the rest of her face. "Get out of my library."

"No," Sesshomaru said simply. "I will do no such thing. I know you have it, Kanna. I want it. Now."

He attacked without further warning. He lunged over the desk, though it came up past his waist. His clawed hands lunged for her. For a tiny thing, she was agile, jumping out of the way of his attack. She raised her hands to her chest, summoning up her mirror. Many souls had been claimed by the tiny object and the power residing therein. Lightning danced in little wisps along the surface of the mirror. Her lightning attacks never missed once they had found a warm body to strike, which is why she had chosen it as her weapon many, many years ago. As the lightning struck only human beings, there was no chance of her precious books being struck by her attacks.

The lightning shot out, aiming for Sesshomaru. He dodged to avoid the attack, at the same time that the library entrance behind him opened. Rather than heading for Sesshomaru, the lightning struck Kikyo as she stepped into the library. She fell to the floor, and neither demon nor vampire knew if she was unconscious or dead. The vampire reacted first, clenching his fist and drawing forth a ball of flames. He raised his hand, watching as Kanna's movements slowed. She knew far too well the mixture of flames and her precious books.

Without another word, the mirror disappeared. She stepped away from her desk, gesturing to it with her right hand. Sesshomaru walked around the desk and looked at the shelf he had leaned over only a moment ago. Sitting there in Kanna's plain sight, was the canopic jar. He grinned greedily, and grabbed it, the ball of fire he held disappearing. Kanna's shoulders relaxed slightly in relief.

Tucking the jar under his arm, he turned to leave, pausing by Kikyo's body. There were burn stripes along her cheeks, under the roots of her hair and her hands, the only part of her visible under the stiff clothes she wore. He looked down at her body disdainfully. 'Filthy ghoul,' he though, about to step over her body when he realized who the woman really was. Not only was she a ghoul, a vile half-breed of vampire and human, she was out to kill his prodigal son Inuyasha and had had the gal to mistake _him_, Sesshomaru, for Inuyasha.

'Despicable.'

He grabbed the hem of her shirt and lifted her enough off the ground to get a better grip on her. Sesshomaru flung her over her shoulder, her dark hair mingling with his. Without a glance at Kanna, he simply vanished into thin air, taking Kikyo with him.

-

Thursday, September 31st, 8 pm

When Kikyo awoke it felt like her body was on fire. She swallowed, but it did nothing to make her parched throat feel any better. She lazily opened her eyes. Sitting only a few feet away from her were two nearly identical vampires. Both had long silver hair and gold eyes, but there were a few tiny differences. One was younger, the other one older with refined features and claw marks faintly visible on his otherwise perfect face.

Fury briefly overcame the pain of her body. She felt ready to vomit for some reason, and there was a funny feeling on her face, around her mouth. "Inuyasha!" she screeched, lunging at him to try and kill him. Her arms were nearly ripped out of her sockets as she was pulled back down to the ground. She let out a tiny whimper of pain, her mind screaming at herself for being weak.

_Her_? _Whimper_? It was unthinkable! What had happened to her? The last thing she remembered was walking into the library, and then there had been that flash of light… she withheld a growl as the more refined of the two vampires tried to contain his obvious signs of pleasure at seeing her struggle and in pain. She glanced behind her to see that her arms were tied behind her back and attached to the foot of a bed. Not just tied: _shackled_.

She lifted her shoulder to wipe away at the tingly sensation on her face. Her blouse came away red. She stared at it, in horror. Red… that had come away from her mouth. 'Blood… _blood_…'

Her body shuddered with pain. She was beginning to feel cold. Her heart sent knives of pain into her chest with each heartbeat. Kikyo had it all figured out. She looked at the two vampires. The younger one was staring at her with a look of horror, and the older one gave off an air of being smug. Without a doubt, it was _his_ blood that was on her face.

As if she had been outside her body, witnessing everything that had happened since the incident at the library, Kikyo watched it play out in her mind. Sesshomaru arrived home with the canopic jar and with her body slung over his shoulder. He walked straight into Inuyasha's room, rousing the slumbering vampire. Sesshomaru tied Kikyo to Inuyasha's bed and then tilted back her head, draining her to the very edge of death. Then he cut his arm, covering her mouth with his bleeding limb. She drank, no doubt some odd combination of her body's reaction to having liquid in her mouth and vampiric telepathy.

Then, it had just been a matter of waiting for her to wake up.

The older vampire appraised her. "Untie her, Inuyasha," he said. The younger man looked up at Sesshomaru, wondering if he was crazy. "Don't worry. If she decides to go after either of us, we will be able to stop her easily. We have to allow her the same choice all of us receive, Inuyasha. If she wants to live, all she has to do is leave this room and hunt. If she wants to die, she will do so when the sun rises and her human body expires. The choice is hers, but either way, there will be one less half-breed in this fucking world by the end of tonight."

He gently patted Inuyasha on his back. "You will need to watch over her, Inuyasha. Watch her closely. This is what you went through on the night that you were changed, what Miroku went through when he became one of my children." Sesshomaru tilted his face slightly, his gold eyes resting on Kikyo. "I don't think she'll be able to put up with the pain of dying."

"I will," she hissed between her clenched teeth. Inuyasha had still made no move to release her from her shackles. She glared at Sesshomaru. "I will not become one of _you_!"

He smirked. He _actually_ smirked as he looked down at her, down at the _thing_ that shivered, who was already flushed with the fever of death. "We shall see," he said slowly. "We shall see."

-

Sango lifted the lid of her trunk. Her vision was blurred, but she didn't really need to be able to see to know where everything she owned was located. She lifted the heavy axe out of her trunk and then closed the lid. She adjusted the pillows in her bed a little more, hoping they looked enough like a sleeping body to fool her mom. She didn't think that she was going to be coming back from trying to kill Sesshomaru, and if she didn't…

Sango tried not to think about it. She knew her mother would be hurt when she found out that Sango had died, but… but this was what Sango had been _made_ to do.

She dropped the axe carefully out the window. It landed in the rhododendrons under her window, the plant muffling the sound of the heavy object striking the ground. Sango climbed out the window and landed on the ground, her usually graceful and easy landing stumbling a little. After finding the axe, she gripped it as tightly as she could. Her hands were clammy and cold, her heart pounding. She knew it wasn't just the fever that had struck her which was making her steps so hard, that made her weapon feel so awkward.

The Slayer was around the block, crossing under a street light when a voice stopped her. The voice was easily recognizable, but she wondered if it was the fever that made his voice sound a little strange. "When I saw your reaction to Sesshomaru's name, I figured that you were going to do something reckless like this," Miroku said, sitting on top of the street lamp. His long legs were folded, and he leaned down to look at her as she stood in the patch of light, breathing heavily. "I was hoping that I was wrong."

"You're not," she growled, looking at the axe in her hands. "I'm going to kill Sesshomaru."

He snickered and jumped down. His black boots barely made a sound as he touched down, getting off of the street lamp as easily as he would have gotten off of a chair. She wondered how he always looked so good dressed, the way the high collar of his black dress shirt brought out the lines of his body or the color of his eyes. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his blue jeans. "You're nowhere near strong enough to kill him, Slayer, nor are you in the best of health. You couldn't even take down Inuyasha, you're that under the weather."

Opening her mouth to protested, he pointed at her. She was wearing little clothing. Blue jeans, the same as him, and a tank top. He smiled a little when he noticed that the top had a kitten lazily stretching on the stomach, and across the bust line it read: 'I don't do mornings'. Her skin was covered in goose bumps, but she didn't seem to notice. Miroku guess, correctly, that it was because her fever was so high that she didn't notice the chill in the air. Winter was coming, and it was coming in quickly.

Frustrated, Sango stomped up to him, trying to get in his face and frighten him off. "What do you care?" she demanded, yelling at him. It only increased her frustration that he stood there, unmoving, taking it all in stride as she felt herself blowing up, all the emotions she had kept hidden for years, for lifetimes, suddenly pouring out. "What do you care? What do you fucking care, Miroku? Are you really that obsessed with fighting me just to smooth over your conscious? Fine, Miroku, if you really want to fight me, fight me now!"

He stood there, his violet eyes looking down at her, his sensual mouth set into a soft line that made Sango think he had the gal enough to actually pity her.

"Damn you, _fight me_!"

She balled her fist and threw a punch at him. Had she been just a normal girl, he probably would have just stood there and taken it in stride. But her punch could throw a man into a wall from ten feet away, if Inuyasha's story was to be believed. He wasn't going to take the chance. He raised his hand and redirected the punch over his shoulder. His other hand snaked up and flew to her neck, his long fingers wrapping around it. Sango's brown eyes widened in fear. She hadn't expected his reaction to be so _fast_…

He let her go a moment later. Her bottom lip appeared to be shaking slightly. Miroku blinked coolly. "You're sick. I don't want to fight you now."

"Then you're never going to get to fight me," she hissed. She followed him as he moved around her. Sango hated it when he started circling her, as if looking for a weak spot. And it made her dizzy too, even if her gaze was fixed on him. "I'm never sick, never physically. I get sick when Sesshomaru is around, when Sesshomaru is feeling something intense. It's like… it's like a Harry Potter and Lord Voldermort thing!"

"Harry and Lord who?"

She sighed. Great. She was trying to explain to how her body reacted to Sesshomaru being around her, how it made her body take on all the signs of anger and immortal fear all at once and how those signs happened to be flu-like symptoms and her analogy failed because she had to talk to the one person who hadn't read Harry Potter.

"Never mind," she sighed, rolling her eyes. She hoisted the axe on to her shoulder. "Look, just leave me alone, okay? I'm _going_ to fight him, whether you want me to or not, Miroku."

"It's a suicide mission!" he protested as she butted past him. Sango didn't hear his boots on the sidewalk behind him, and so she thought that he wasn't following her. "No body is strong enough to take down Sesshomaru! Not even you!"

"Then I'll die trying!" she hollered back over her shoulder. When she turned back to the path was on, she found Miroku in front of her, his arm raised and a gun in his hand pointed straight at her. Sango felt a slash of betrayal strike her heart, her mouth falling open. She couldn't believe that _Miroku_ had been talking to her about fair fights and an open battle and now he was pointing a gun at her forehead. 'Wait. Yes, I can believe that. He's a fucking _vampire_ after all.'

As she watched, his thumb lifted and he pulled back the safety. His brows were drawn together, his expression one of ferocity. Sango was confused by his expression. How could one expression be so casual and yet determined at the same time? "If you're really that eager to die, Sango, then just try and get past me. I'll pull this trigger if you don't turn around and go straight home."

She stared back at him, ignoring the fact that there was a weapon pointed straight at her head. After a long time, her jaw beginning to hurt from the way she was clenching it, she said, "I can't leave. It's my job, Miroku. I kill vampires."

"I know," he said, his voice just as tight. "But you're not strong enough to kill Sesshomaru. No one is. I should know. He's my sire. I've seen how strong he really eyes. For lifetimes I've been learning everything I can, training myself in every way possible to give myself a better chance at taking him down myself."

Her grip on the axe loosened a little, her body relaxing out of surprise when she found out this information. Her eyes widened, and she was about to speak, but Miroku continued. His had become face looser, less determined. He looked suddenly very vulnerable, very… very _human_ in the way his arm fell away, in the way he looked at her not out of pity or because she was naïve and he found it endearing, but out of condolence, from one warrior to another.

"I told you: we're alike, you and I. You kill vampires… and so do I. I kill vampires. I kill vampires who have broken our laws. I am…"

"You're the one that they call 'the Judge'. I've heard about you," Sango said, feeling suddenly very worried. The things she had heard form vampires and demons regarding the butcher of the vampire world had not been kind. "They say that the only person who has a higher body count than you is Sesshomaru. They say that there's no way to hunt you, that no body you ever targeted to die has ever survived."

"And they're right," he said, not without a bit of pride. To demonstrate that he was speaking the truth, he slipped the gun back into his jacket and then slipped away, vanishing into the darkness. His form blurred, his body losing color… and then he wasn't. At the foot of where he had just stood, there was a cloud of silvery mist.

The mist began to float towards her, but Sango didn't move away. She was too entranced, not only by the way the lights danced off of the particles in the air, turning the light fog into a rainbow of shimmering colors, and also because of the event she had just witnessed. Miroku had turned into fog. Sango had heard of vampires being able to do such a thing, but she had thought it was just a myth. After all, she had been hunting vampire for how many centuries, and never once had she actually seen such a thing happen!

The missed began to surround her body. She was surprised by how warm it actually was. It sang to her body, wrapping around her limbs, warming her. She breathed in deeply, finding that for some reason the scent of sandalwood and of age, _his_ scent, had somehow became familiar and comforting. She closed her eyes, relaxing as the mist touched her body lightly, the faint tendrils of smoke caressing her neck and her arms, her back, rubbing from her shoulders down to her backside. Sango leaned her head back, her long hair mingling with the fog and feeling as if long fingers were brushing out the tangles. Her heart was starting to race from the sensuous and gentle caresses her body was feeling, when she suddenly felt sharp teeth running along her neck.

The mist was gone as her head snapped back up, once again bringing the weapon into an attack position. She still felt those long, aristocratic fingers brushing her hair, still felt his warmth and his scent warp around her, but his body was back. He stood behind her, the edges of his clothes just barely touching her. He was too close for comfort, and yet Sango couldn't find the will to move away from him.

She gulped and breathed deeply through her mouth. Her voice was deceptively easygoing. "You're such a show off." He chuckled, and Sango could feel the deep sound reverberating inside of her. "But it is you, your kind of vampire that all the legends have come from. The vampires that have given rise to the ides of vampires being seducers, being wonderful lovers and suave, aristocratic gentlemen… it _is_ you."

His answer was slower than she would have expected. "It is."

"And yet, when you've just admitted to being suave, you expect me to believe you when you say that you're just like me? You must think me an idiot to fall for something like that, Miroku." Sango was surprised when he suddenly grabbed her arms and spun her around to face him. She dropped the axe accidentally, looking up into his eyes and finding them so honest she knew he wasn't lying.

"I'm not lying to you, Sango," he said passionately. "You and I are alike! I… I…" He didn't seem to be able to say what ever was on his mind. He stared at her a moment, wishing that she was as good as telepathy as he was, wishing that she would just reach out and touch the mind he was currently wearing on his sleeve, to know those thoughts, those words he longed to say out loud.

Her own face began to melt into honesty. Being close with him, smelling him, feeling his warmth, it made her remember those dreams that had shared. The first one had been horrifying, there was no question. Just thinking about it made Sango want to start shaking. Yet there had been passion, she was certain of it. Maybe it was nothing but lust, but whatever it was, it had been the only feeling she had ever experienced that was equal to the hate she had for vampires. And the second one, it had been by far more gentle, more soothing. For moments, in that intimate dream, Sango had forgotten that she was the Slayer, that she had this terrible fate, lifetimes of fighting both in front of her and behind her, and she had been alive for just that one moment… And even the last time that they had met, there had been such understanding, both of them dreamers, looking up at the sky and understanding the beauty of the world and how insignificant human beings really were…

Could he actually be telling the truth? Were they really that similar?

'No,' Sango snapped at herself. 'It's just a cleverly disguised lie!'

Her quietness had distressed him. She stared up at him, confusion and acceptance fighting behind the thin veil of her eyes. He reached out, the curve of his finger stroking her chin as he leaned down a little, trying to see her face a little more clearly. "Sango?"

The feeling of that wonderful intimacy, of being physically and mentally open with somebody came flooding back into her, pushing away the wall of hatred that had stood against anything and everything else… but _this_. But _him_. Sango looked up at him, her bottom lip trembling, tears clinging to the dark lashes around her eyes. She took in a sharp breath as her eyes focused on his. "I'm scared."

Miroku said nothing, in shock at her confession. She stepped forward, pressing her body against his, and Miroku slowly responded. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her, and he laid his cheek against her dark hair, trying hard to be supportive and not to crush her to him the way he wanted, to smell her hair the way he longed to. She sniffled, her cheek laying against his hard chest. Her arms were flat against her side. She wasn't sure what to do with them.

"I have to make Sesshomaru go away from here. I have to protect people. But I can't win all the time. I've never had a little twin brother before. I don't ever recall having a mother who cared so much about me even though I'm a disobedient child and I make her life a living hell by always getting into trouble. And I've never had friends before. How can I fight knowing that eventually, I'm going to lose, and I'm going to die, and that my death will hurt my friends more than anything else in the world?" She sniffled loudly. "I'm so scared…."

Miroku's fingers brushed the hair that was tied in a ponytail. "I know. You have every right to be scared. But you're a fighter, and so you have to keep on fighting, Sango. Not just for your friends, but for everybody. Buddha, God, whatever you believe in, gave you a great burden, maybe even an unfair burden. But he gave you this to go with it."

"Gave me what?" she asked bitterly. The warmth fell away as Miroku let her go. One hand gently clasped her shoulder, and the other hand pointed at her heart.

"He gave you this. A heart. He gave you the largest heart of anyone I've ever seen. And I've been around for quite awhile." He smiled at her, his eyes never leaving hers. "Your heart is, and forever will be, your greatest weapon. It makes you love people so that you want to protect them, makes you believe in things like justice and… and love," he finished quietly.

The tears were now gently rolling over her pink cheeks. She blinked, sending more tears moving slowly down her face, and the grip she had on his black shirt tightened. She swallowed hard. "I… I don't want to die, Miroku."

His fingers gently worked at drying her face. "I don't want you to die either. So wait, just a little bit longer, to take on Sesshomaru? Please, Sango?"

She nodded. She licked her lips nervously, pulling on his shirt, guiding him closer to her. "Miroku…" she said quietly. "Thank you for listening to me." She leaned up on her toes a little, her face angling up towards him.

And she kissed him.

-

Miroku was steel feeling giddy from the kiss when he arrived home that evening. He walked into the kitchen, and was surprised to find it empty. The door to Inuyasha's bedroom was open, and a woman was in there, clinging to the foot of Inuyasha's bed as if her life depended on it.

"You want blood," he heard Sesshomaru saying disdainfully from inside the room. He snorted. "You want human blood. You're stupid if you're actually going to be choosing death, and a painful one at that, over living and being god-like."

Miroku recognized the speech. It was the same one that he heard nearly a century ago. Almost eight hundred years of life, and Sesshomaru hadn't come up with something new. He walked closer to the bedroom, the smell of blood making him aware of just how hungry he was.

The woman had bitten her own arm, the blood spilling from around her lips to drop on the carpet of Inuyasha's floor. She was snarling, her face white from the pain she was experiencing. Her whole body was shaking from it, her nails gouging marks in Inuyasha's furniture, sweat soaking her clothes. Miroku was disturbed by the sight, and when he noticed that she was drinking her own blood to make the pain lighten, he was disgusted. What was Sesshomaru doing?

He spotted Inuyasha curled up on the chair. He looked very young, his knees tucked under his chin and his hands hidden behind them, no doubt clenching together to keep him from saying anything. His skin was as pale as his hair, his gold eyes intently watching the woman as she shuddered, as if begging her to leave the room the way Sesshomaru was telling her to do and to live.

The woman's heavy breathing was raspy with the blood that was in her mouth and throat. Her brown eyes were focused on Sesshomaru, the tiniest flecks of gold in her eyes as the blood fought back and forth in her, each side trying to dominate. "Fuck you."

"What's going on here?" Miroku asked Sesshomaru as he entered the room. The woman didn't even seem to notice him.

"A bit of an experiment," Sesshomaru replied, his eyes glancing at Inuyasha's still form.

It didn't take a genius to understand. Miroku knew that Kikyo was a ghoul. No doubt Sesshomaru was trying to rectify what he saw as a mistake, and doing it in the most painful way possible. Inuyasha was being made to watch because misery loved company. Miroku once again had to wonder exactly how much Sesshomaru knew or guessed about how he and Inuyasha really felt about Sesshomaru, or about being vampires in general. Inuyasha had always had a problem with empathy… and it was something that he had learned from Miroku.

"I see," he commented dryly, trying to sound bored. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small glass vial that Inuyasha had given him earlier. He held it out for Sesshomaru. "I'm actually conducting a bit of an experiment myself, Sesshomaru," he said, trying to distract him as he talked mentally with Inuyasha and the woman.

_I can help you, Kikyo. I can block all the pain from you, so that you will die peacefully. You escaped the curse of being a vampire once before. I don't want to see that be undone._

On the floor, Kikyo shook her head slightly. She was too proud to accept help.

"…Sesshomaru, and so I was wondering if you might be able to spare enough blood to fill this vial…"

_If I get his blood, Inuyasha, I'll put it in the drawer of my left nightstand. You can go and get it tomorrow night and bring it to her. Hopefully the prospect of seeing Kagome tomorrow night will help to make this night easier for you to bear._

"…as well as a few strands of your hair."

Sesshomaru swept his fingers through his hair, pulling a few of the long silvery strands. He unwound them from his graceful fingers and handed them over to Miroku. Then, he bit his finger with his fangs and held his finger over the vial, slowly milking out enough blood to fill the small thing. All this time, his golden eyes never left Kikyo's body, drinking in her pain and suffering and basking in its glory.

Miroku closed the stopper of the vial, holding the small glass case and at the crimson liquid it held. A smile began to touch his face, though it was miniscule when compared to the one he had worn after Sango had kissed him. 'Ah, Sesshomaru,' he thought, taking it to his room and carefully putting it away. 'If only you're aware of the great weapon you just gave to me.'

* * *

-To Be Continued 


	21. Blood and Love

AN: I got one of my essay written—version one anyway. But as it means I have something crossed my giant list of things to do… why not go ahead and update! ::grins:: After all, I love having an excuse to reread TB! It's been so long since I actually wrote this (okay, it was actually December) that I've forgotten what I wrotw!

Lily: Jaken will not be making an appearance. He's one of the people in the show whose characters I don't at least vaguely understand…. Basically, he's the only one I found incredibly annoying, and as such, I've ostracized him from this fic. … I kid! I kid! Jaken is a non-human looking demon. I didn't know how to get him into this fic, because everyone here is human looking, demon, vampire, or otherwise… which is human. Had I done a scene where Sango hunts in the sewers, a meeting with Jaken could have been arranged, but not now.

Fantastical Ebony: …You're an angst writer, aren't you?...

Blood Red Emerald: If someone you trusted came up and asked you for a few drops of your blood for an experiment, would you do it? Probably. It's only a few drops. And, more importantly, you _trust_ him. Miroku is Sesshy's protégé. He'd do anything to help Miroku with his experiments, because he admires Miroku's brains… and regardless, he was distracted, too! But basically, Sesshy's one saving grace is that he is capable of trust.

Fireblade: Maybe they will see _Dracula _one day. And there's further elaboration on the kiss here. I love that kiss. ::preens::

Ninalee-chan: Now that you bring it up, it does sound a little fishy. However, it's a purely economic, food-related reason. For one, it means that for a lifetime, he doesn't have such a high cost of living because there's someone else bringing in income. Second, it's a stable food source. And third, the best way to avoid getting into trouble in those pesky times like the Inquisition, is to have a mortal to manipulate into lying for you, or throwing parties to bring food to you since going out and hunting while police forces are patrolling the streets is a no-no. And I don't mind your long reviews. Also, Kouga will be making an appearance and… about two chapters. As for Kagura, she gets to continue living her happy, normal human life being a professor. I just wanted to have someone rooting for the good guys, so it didn't seem like all the adults were out to get them.

Chadrific: Do you know you used the phrase "bad assed" four times in that review? But yes, I agree. He does have a dark side. And I love toying with it!

Raivyn: While I'm sure that my ENGL1105 (the introductory English course here at Nip U. which tears apart several good stories and poems as they try and "close read" them) massacred mind could come up with a rational explanation to prove that vampires are sexual creatures, I'll gladly let Miss Rice have her own opinion. Thank you for your wonderful comment. And no, there won't be a sequel, sorry.

And then there was Fallen Sakura, who asked, among others, for explanation into "the Judge" and Miroku's desire for killing Sesshy.

Miroku: Basically, he's just bitter for ever having been turned into a vampire. He didn't know at the time that he would be losing a lot of emotion, feeling, soul, call it what you will. Once he was on a righteous path, trying to better the world, and he allowed himself, he feels, to be pulled from his course by Sesshy. He takes a little bit about it with Rin in this chapter, so I won't explain this too much,

The Judge: Basically, Miroku is a hit man. If a vampire breaks the laws they've imposed to protect themselves (like Inuyasha being seen by Kagome and not killing her for finding out vampire are real and he is one) it's Miroku job to find them and kill them before vampire society is discovered. The powers he has, like telepathy, turning into mist, and empathy/aura reading, are all traits which allowed him to become the Judge. He can hide his targets, get close to them, follow them as a fog, etc.

It doesn't come up again in the story, as far as I can remember, but if you go back, it's hinted in some of the conversations Miroku and Inuyasha have about Kagome. At one point, Miroku tells Inuyasha that 'if you don't kill her, you're going to be punished… and I don't want to see that'. Things like that.

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Enjoy! It's uber long!

**Chapter Twenty-One: **

**Blood and Love**

Wednesday, October 1st, 8:30 pm

"Oh," Mrs. Higurashi said, opening the door. She smiled and held the door open for her guest. "Ranma! Kagome will be happy to see you. She's upstairs in her bedroom. Will you be staying for supper at all? I know it's rather late, but Kagome and I still haven't eaten yet."

Inuyasha smiled as much as he could. He had slept fretfully that night, remembering the way Kikyo had screamed and how her body had thrashed as the sun began to rise that morning. Her arms had been covered in bite marks from her own mouth, but she had persisted and she had not become a vampire. In the end, her body had just shriveled up, and though she was young, her corpse has resembled a mummy's. Inuyasha had never seen what happened to the body of a human being when they didn't become a vampire.

He wished that he still didn't know.

"I will if Kagome won't mind. I had really just come by to drop something off to her. Thank you, though, Mrs. Higurashi." He bowed his head to her and took off his shoes, scrambling upstairs as quickly as he could to avoid any other questions.

He didn't knock as he entered Kagome's bedroom. Kagome was sitting at her desk when he entered, fully healed, with her lips pursed as she puzzled over a bit of math homework. When she heard him enter, she looked up and smiled at him. His day instantly felt better. Whenever Kagome smiled at him, he felt like he was on top of the world.

"I have it," he said, holding up a little paper bag that held the vial and Sesshomaru's hair.

"Great." Kagome placed it carefully away. Clasping her hands behind her back, she looked up at Inuyasha. "I'll do the spell tomorrow night. What's the matter with you, Inuyasha? You don't seem like yourself." She smiled. "And I don't mean it's because of the hair or the fact that you don't have your cute little puppy ears."

He frowned, sitting on her bed and sulking. "They are not cute. They are manly." She gave him a placate look and decided not to argue that point. She very much doubted that when Inuyasha had chosen his vampire shape, it had been to attract prey by offering them the chance to rub his ears. She _knew_, actually, that they were supposed to be meant for frightening away "And I just… I had a bad day yesterday."

"Oh," Kagome said. That wasn't the answer she was quite expecting. She sat down next to him on the bed. "Is there anything that I can do to help you?"

He looked at her. It was still odd to see his eyes being brown instead of gold, but odder still was the emotion she saw in them. She couldn't out her finger on exactly which emotion it was, only that there was a lot of it and that somehow, it seemed unadulterated. Pure. She looked worried, and he was nervous. Inuyasha swallowed, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her down on the bed and holding her close. Her presence was comforting: sweet, maternal Kagome, who seemed so good that nothing could ever turn her against the path she had chosen. Her values were carefully woven into her, and no one could change them. Inuyasha admired the way she lived her life… and was a little envious of it.

"Just being here is enough Kagome," he mumbled into her hair. He was quiet, questions bothering him that he didn't know how to voice. He didn't want to burden her with the pain of what he had seen the night before, but he felt so bothered by it…

Inuyasha managed to bite his tongue and remain silent.

Inside his head, all he could hear was Kikyo's whimpers of pain, hear her fingers dragging against the grain as she clawed the bed, smell her blood…

Why wouldn't it stop?

Kagome, however, was worried about him. She lifted her head from his shoulder, looking down at him as they lay together on her bed, their bodies mingling together and taking comfort. Inuyasha was irresistible to Kagome's soft nature, the way her reassurance was unfailing, and the wisdom that she held. Sometime he wondered if she was his personal angel, and then he told himself he was being silly. Kagome took comfort in the way that he was there to protect her, to be her friend when the world seemed unbearable, his age alone reminding her that people had an astounding ability to persevere when all else seemed lost.

"Have you fed yet?" she asked, concerned. He shook his head, and her innocent blue eyes, as bright and as clear as the sunny sky Inuyasha only vaguely remembered, filled with apprehension. "Do you want… want to feed from…"

He raised his hand to cover her mouth. He didn't want to hear the offer. It was too tempting. Her blood tasted crystal clear, like the way he remembered his first taste of clean water, rather than the filthy mud he had drunk when he was little. That was why he had taken so much the other time he had drunk from her. He had been barely able to control himself, desiring to taste more, to drink until he had drowned. Inuyasha knew that the next time he had her blood, it would be the same way, and he would again need to give her his blood to stabilize her, to keep her from needing hospitalization. And, if things repeated from the first time they had exchanged blood, she would not be able to stop herself as she drank _his_ blood…

He didn't want to see Kagome drinking something so vile as vampire blood again.

Rather than argue, he kissed her softly, and Kagome was more than happy to kiss him back, forgetting her homework and the spell she needed to perform the following night, and just enjoying being with the man she loved.

-

Miroku walked down the street with a bounce in his step. Somehow, it didn't stop the grace of his walk at all, or interrupt his natural stride. Despite the events of the night before regarding Kikyo's untimely demise, Miroku was in a wonderful mood. He had a spell in his pocket and a weapon in a brown paper bag, and his lips still felt all tingly from Sango's kiss.

Had someone told him before that Sango was going to kiss him, he would have thought that her kiss would be like the ones from his wonderful dreams. He would have thought her touch would have been enough to make his mind shut down and for the man in him that had seduced women for over the past seven hundred years to forget the smallest detail he knew about females, about how to turn a kiss so that the receiver melted in his arms or how to make a kiss count.

But her kiss hadn't been like that. It had been like her earlier kisses in their dream-world: shy, sweet, clumsy kisses, that didn't quite cover his lips completely and it was hardly something that would normally take a man's breath away. But it had been _Sango_ kissing him, and so even a day afterwards, he still felt light headed from it.

Approaching the Onigumo household, he shook away the feelings that fluttered about in his stomach, regretful as soon as he had done so. Those feelings had given him a sense of youthfulness he had not felt since the day his master had died, all those lifetimes ago…

He knocked on the door, hoping that it was Rin who answered, and not the reverend. Much to his dismay, it was Reverend Naraku who opened the door. He was positively glaring at Miroku, and Miroku, for all his years, actually felt a little discerned from that glare. "Can I help you?"

"I'd like to speak to Rin, please," he said, trying to be polite.

Naraku raised an eyebrow, appraising the young man. "I don't know you. Who are you to be asking to speak to my daughter?" Miroku had dealt with fathers like this in the past, and yet, because of Rin's young age and the fact that he appeared to be closer to his twenties, he doubted lying to Naraku and saying he was courting Rin would actually work. Miroku was frustrated, and as if sensing this, Naraku snidely remarked, "Especially at this time of night!"

"At this time of night?" Miroku repeated, shocked at Naraku's sudden display of tyranny. He gestured to the sky, which was dark, but given how quickly winter was descending upon the seaside town, it was hardly surprising. "It's only fifteen to nine!"

He held his chin high, smirking triumphantly. "Yes, well, I won't allow my daughter to go outside after dark with someone who is so obviously rude to his seniors. Besides, we…"

"_Daddy_!" Rin said sharply, appearing at the bottom of the stairs. She was dressed in slippers, her frizzy hair was done up in pigtails, and he wondered how old she had been when she had gotten such a small sweatshirt with kittens wearing shiny pink ribbons around their necks. It looked like something an eight year old kid would wear, and although she looked like one, Miroku knew that everyone in his house was aware of just how much of a young adult she really was.

She walked past her father, who seemed shocked that Rin was being so assertive. Taking Miroku's hand, she looked up at her father, her freckled face actually managing to look hard and almost frightening rather than endearingly cute. "Don't tell my friends they can't see me. We're just going to go for a walk around the block. I'll be back soon."

Without a second glance at her father's shocked face, Rin was pulling Miroku back down the cinderblock path that led up to the front door. For such a little thing, she was surprisingly strong. But when they got to the rusting picket fence and her father was out of sight, Rin sighed. She didn't release Miroku's hand.

"I think my father is trying to make up for neglecting me all these years now that…" Her voice was momentarily choked. "Now that Kuranosuke is gone. He kind of wanted a boy, because he wanted a son to carry on the family name." She blinked, looking down at the ground as they slowly ambled down the sidewalk, and after a moment, she looked up at Miroku. "Do all fathers want that? Is it something females don't understand?"

"I don't honestly know. I was an only child, so I don't know how my father would have reacted to having a girl in the family. But my father was a very loving man, and no doubt he would have been more than happy with any number of children, of any gender. But back then it was a different world, Pet, and after my mother died from having me, he couldn't bare the idea of finding another woman in his life."

"That sounds romantic. Your father sounds like a wonderful person," Rin noted, making Miroku sigh as he remembered his father fondly. She tried to find a topic that wasn't so sad, and so she asked him what he was doing asking her out of the house. She frowned a little, but Rin was back to being impossibly adorable, and the expression turned out more puzzled than bitter. "You told me that I wasn't supposed to show up at your house anymore because of Sesshomaru, remember? So don't you start thinking that I was skipping out on my lessons or anything!"

"Oh, I know," he said, bending down to her level. They stopped walking, but they were far enough away from Rin's house that their father wouldn't be able to see them. He looked up at Rin, his visage concerned. "I came here because I have a very important question for you. I need your help, Pet."

"_Mine_?"

"Yes. Don't sound so surprised. The thing is, that this is a dangerous piece of magic that I want you to work for me. I have everything you need, minus some stuff that you should have on hand, as you are a very good little witch. And what little Wiccan would be caught without a candle or an athame, hm?" Rin giggled. "It's complicated Rin, and you're not yet fully trained, so this is going to be even more dangerous for you, understand? But it's very, very important that I get this made for me. It's for the Slayer. Do you know about her?"

Rin's brown eyes widened. "Y… yes! The librarian at school told me legends like that! But… I never thought that they were real! I just thought that she told me about her because people were telling scary stories and it made me feel better!"

It amazed him how young she could be at times. She sounded so young, sometimes. "No, Rin. The Slayer is quite real, and living in this very city."

"But…" She suddenly darted forward, grabbing his shoulders and looking fiercely into his eyes. "If she's here, then you and Inuyasha and Mr. Sesshomaru have to leave right now! It's dangerous for you to be here! I don't want…"

Miroku pressed his finger against her lips softly, silencing her. He smiled at her like the doting father he longed to be for her. "Rin," he said soothingly, "we're not going anywhere. Kagome and Inuyasha love each other, and Kagome will make certain that nothing happens to Inuyasha so long as she's alive. As for myself, I owe the Slayer a life, and eventually we'll fight each other, and the strongest will prevail because that's how the world works. Despite what people tell you, not even humans are above the laws of nature, and neither are vampires. We fight for our survival. As for Sesshomaru… you know what he is, don't you Rin?"

"A vampire." She corrected herself, wondering why there was a feeling of dread creeping up on her. "A _pretty_ vampire."

"He's a killer."

"He made _you_."

Miroku shook his head. He wondered if maybe she was too sweet to understand, or maybe she was too taken with Sesshomaru's looks to understand. His expression softened further. Shifting himself to make him more comfortable, he let out a little sigh. "No, he's a killer. He kills people indiscriminately. No doubt he is taken by you, Pet. After all, you're smart, and talented, and so cute that when you finish growing up you could break a man's heart. But he is a killer, and he has to pay for that. The Slayer wants to fight him, and if she does, she's going to die. I don't want to see Sango die."

"Sango?" Rin asked, looking shocked and happy all at the same time. "_Sango_ is the Slayer?" He nodded, and Rin's hands closed. She looked older and more mature as she looked him in the eye. "I like Sango. She stood up to my brother, like Kagome did. And she's Kohaku's twin! Nobody is going to hurt Sango while I'm here, not even Seshsomaru! But… why don't you want to see Sango die? You're a vampire. You've seen lots of people die."

His eyes suddenly filled with pain, and Rin yelled at herself for dragging up the names, faces, and voices of people Miroku had known and cared for over the years and who had ended up dying. He had seen teachers, students, lovers, friends, all of them die. Some went happily in their beds, cozy and warm. Others were less fortunate, dying in wars, famines, or worse…Miroku's friend Christopher Marlowe died in a bar room brawl.

His voice seemed distant. "Do you remember if you asked me if I wanted to change you?" he asked. Rin nodded her head. "I do want to change you, Rin." Miroku's fingers gently traced her cheeks. His thoughtful smiled wavered as he looked at her, watching her spreading blush consume the childish freckles on her face. "I want you to be mine. I want you to be part of our family. Having you as a daughter would make me so proud, Rin."

She wondered why there suddenly seemed to be the pain again. Why did he look like his heart was breaking as he looked at her? She covered his hand with hers as he tried to find the voice to continue.

"But I can't do it." He tried to ignore the feeling of surprise on her face. Was he really such a good actor, had he truly perfected being a heartless bastard to the point that not even someone as trusting as Rin would believe the truth? What would Sango have said or looked if he had told suspicious, vampire-hating Sango the truth?

"I can't. Inuyasha and I… I raised him, Rin. We both had a great deal of influence in each other's lives. The reason why we both get a long isn't just because we learned to live together, it's because we both have something in common. We both still retained our humanity when we became vampires. We've done horrible things, don't doubt me. They were horrible things, of which we're both ashamed and which we will eventually pay for when our Judgment day is at hand, or when we are reborn… Many people believe vampires don't have their souls anymore, and if this is true, Inuyasha and I were at least able to retain a small fraction of that soul.

"In the heat of the moment, in the passion of having that dream, of having the closest thing to a family that I ever could, I was ready to pass on the curse I hate to you, thinking that you would be like us and you would care for people even though you were a vampire. It would be like a new generation of vampires, immortal people who retained their humanity. But now that I have my clarity back, I can't do it, Rin. Sesshomaru would do it, but he would corrupt you first, the same way he did to Inuyasha. I don't want to see him do that to you."

She was still confused, and so Miroku gently rubbed her cheek with his thumb soothingly, hating himself for what he was going to do to her. "We want to protect Sango, don't we?" he asked, making her nod fervently. "Okay, but I'm going to let you in on a little secret. You have to promise not to tell anyone this, Rin. The Slayer isn't a sequence of girls, it's one girl, one soul who is so filled with hate towards our kind that rather than go to paradise after her death, she returns to this world to continue hunting down my kind. Dying is the fate the Sango was born to. But at least by killing Sesshomaru, we might be able to help her have longer lives in the future because the strongest vampire for her to kill will be gone. It will take even more lifetimes until Sango is strong enough to kill Sesshomaru, but if you and I can help her, _now_, in this life, then we can help the peace she seeks be that much closer to her."

Rin still looked a little scared. "We have to kill Sesshomaru to make Sango safe…"

"Exactly. Now you understand, Rin."

"A… a little," she sniffled. She patted her eyes out of custom, not sure if she was crying or not. She felt like crying, because she really did like Sesshomaru. She had always figured that he couldn't be all bad if he had refrained from ever attacking her. But if Miroku said that this was a way for her to save Sango… Rin trusted Miroku completely. He was the only vampire she'd met yet who hadn't hurt her in some way. She didn't want him to get mad at her now, or be upset with himself if she started crying.

She reached out, brushing his black hair as she suddenly threw her tiny body on his, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Her voice was quiet, but filled with raw strength, as if the words were ripped right from her soul. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm never going to see you again, Miroku? I don't want you to leave me. You're my teacher! You have to help me learn how to control the things I can do, otherwise my magic might end up hurting people…"

He knew what she was feeling. The dread of this being his goodbye to Rin had slowly crept up upon him as well, and he had hoped he was only being paranoid. Miroku brushed her hair, laying his chin upon her head and holding her much the same way he had held Sango the night before, offering her comfort.

It was amazing how one way to hold somebody could be pulled off in so many ways. He had held Inuyasha like this before, and had been like a big brother acting the part of a father, held Sango like this to comfort her as a friend and a lover would do, and now that he was holding Rin it was back to being a father-figure.

"I'm never going to leave you, Rin. Not really. My soul will come back to this world eventually, and maybe one day you and I will meet again." He kissed her hair, rocking her back and forth a little.

After staying like that for a long time, Rin finally repeated her question for earlier. She lifted her head a little, her pert nose just touching his chin as she tried to look up at him. "Miroku… why do you want to help Sango?"

"Because," he quietly replied. Rin thought the only way that she heard him was because she was so close to him. "I love her."

-

"Thank you very much for the dinner," Inuyasha said, putting down his glass and his plate in the sink. He bowed his head in Mrs. Higurashi's direction while Kagome looked on wistfully. "I really should be going. Hopefully I'll be seeing you again sometime soon, Mrs. Higurashi." His eyes focused on Kagome, and the women were both a little surprised at the tender ferocity his eyes held. "I'll see you later, Kagome."

Kagome walked him out, and when she returned to the kitchen, she found her mother reclining calmly in her chair, sipping her green tea, her eyes peacefully closed. Kagome snuck by her mom and started pouring water in the sink to do the dishes. Her mother's voice surprised her, but what Mrs. Higurashi said surprised her by far more.

"Nice boy, that Ranma… too bad about the drinking blood thing." Kagome almost dropped the glass she held as she spun around to look at her mother. Mrs. Higurashi's eyes were open as she watched her daughter with a small smile on her face. "Oh, don't look so surprised. I know he's a vampire, though I must admit that it took me a moment or two before I figured it out, and had I known from the very start, I very much doubt that I would have invited him into my house." She tilted her head as she thought. "Do you think it would be improper of me to offer him pig's blood next time he comes over? Maybe that would be able to satiate him so he wouldn't need to go out and hunt after eating. I do so hate it when my guests don't leave feeling satiated. We have some pig's blood at the store…"

'Oh, that's right! The store!' Kagome turned back to doing the dishes, speaking to her mother over her shoulder. "Mom, I have a spell I want to try tomorrow night, but I want a private place to do it in. May I use the shop? After hours, of course."

Her mother looked at her suspiciously. "Of course you can use the shop. It is yours too, Kagome. Though I wish that if you've decided to get into more complicated form of magic you would ask me for help."

Kagome smiled, washing her plate and rinsing it off in hot water. "Don't worry. I'll be just fine, Mom."

-

Sango sat her desk, bored out of her mind. She was done all her homework, and she was actually looking forward to going back to school on the following Monday. At least then she would have something to do during her day, even though it would mean no more sleeping in. After spending six hours that day playing Neopets, Sango didn't really want to see the internet again for a long, long time. 'And I still have the weekend to get through. Damn it. I'm never going to make it to Monday.'

She heard her door creak open and Kohaku stuck his head inside her room. He looked fearful as he checked the air to make sure that there weren't any flying shoes, books, or socks in the air. Sango gestured for him to enter as she leaned back in her grey desk chair, swiveling it around, bored. She listened to his bare feet on her carpet as she stared at the ceiling, and was struck by an odd thought, one of the ones that was so random and "out there" it made her wonder if she really was losing her mind. Maybe vampires really didn't exist. And even if they did, she was trusting a child of her enemy… that had to be proof that she was insane.

'I wonder what the kid of Kohaku and Rin would look like if they ever procreated,' she though, giggling. Their kid would probably be so cute people would get toothaches just looking at him. Or her.

"You're not going out tonight, sis?" Sango stopped spinning in her chair, suddenly feeling very… known. She turned enough to look at her brother. He just looked at her, as plain as he would look as he would if he was asking her any normal question. She had received worse looks by him before—like when he asked her if she was going out dressed "like that" when she was accidentally wearing one pink sock and one bright green sock with her black shorts—and yet she hated this one by far more.

She didn't know if she should try playing innocent or not. Of course, it would look rather silly, playing innocent after she had just spent the last four seconds—now five—staring at him with an astonished expression. She crossed her arms, still spinning back and forth in her desk chair, feeling suddenly very much like cornered evil villain in a James Bond movie. She even had the clichéd cat on her lap.

"How did you know about that?"

"I _am_ your twin," he said, rolling his eyes. "It's natural for me to know what my big sister is doing. You've snuck out of the house almost every night since you were eight years old. I don't know how Mom hasn't caught you yet. So why aren't you going out tonight?"

She looked rather grumpy, and she stroked Kirara. "It's none of your business," she said, in a voice that was as grumpy as her face. Kohaku gave her a look that said '_It is too my business, stupid. I'm your brother!'_ Sango relented with a sighed. "It's because I promised a friend that I wouldn't go out tonight, okay?"

"Is it a _male_ friend?" he inquired, helping himself to a large portion of Sango's bed so he could sit down and look at her. He saw her blush and snapped his fingers triumphantly. "Ha! It is a guy! Sango has a _crush_! Who is it? Is it that Kouga guy, because he doesn't seem like your type. You need someone a little more down to earth, someone with the same grace that you do so you don't make him jealous. Like… like the guy in the bar," he finished tentatively, remembering the way Sango had gotten furious the last time he had brought up the man she had danced with at The Wall.

Much to his surprise, this time she merely blushed deeply, looking back at the Neopet on her computer as if it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. Kohaku knew her sister's guilty attitude as plainly as he did any other of her moods.

Leaping off the bed, he pointed a finger at her, his voice triumphant. "It _is_ the boy from the bar! So, how did he get you to promise not to sneak out? Have you kissed him yet? What's his name? He looked older than you. Does he have a job around here or commute from college or something? Where's he from? How did he learn to dance like that?"

She gritted her teeth, getting mad at Kohaku and frustrated with him for trying to pry into her personal life. She grabbed a book offher bed and threw it at him. He dodged it and the book bounced harmlessly off the wall. Kohaku grinned triumphantly, only to be beaned in the head with Sango's rolled up sock. Kirara, upset by Sango's shifting as she had reached for her sock, meowed loudly and leapt off of Sango's lap, hiding under the bed until the storm blew over.

"Come on! Come on! What's his name, huh Sango? What's his name?" Kohaku chanted, dodging the various things that Sango threw at him. She had just picked up her paperweight when the doorbell rang. Kohaku raced downstairs

Sango put the paperweight down. She blinked calmly, slowly turning back to finish the game she had been playing when Kohaku had entered. Sometimes she couldn't believe the temper she had on her sometimes. She had been about to throw a paperweight at Kohaku! Was she insane? Thinking back to how she had kissed Miroku the night before, she smiled. "Probably," she answered herself.

The younger twin paused as he ran down the stairs. He had expected Sango to have followed him, yelling something about how little brats like him shouldn't be opening the doors to strangers… but she was still in her room. Kohaku pouted. He was one of the few males who could actually pout without looking ridiculous. It had been fun teasing Sango, and new she was ruining it by being all mature and stuff…

He opened the door and was surprised to find it was the very man that they had been discussing upstairs. Kohaku wished that he looked as good as the man did. He just seemed to ooze gracefulness and sensuality, even though all he was wearing was jeans and a leather jacket over a crimson dress shirt. Kohaku, on the other hand, was built along soft lines, and lacked the muscle or the breadth of his shoulder to wear clothes the way the man at the door did.

Kohaku looked at the man standing at the threshold of his house. He was the man of the house, he had to scare away guys like this who were trying to get close to his sister! …Right?

"You don't want to talk to her," he said before he thought about it, gesturing over his shoulder to the older twin walking down the stairs. "She's kind of PMSing right now!"

"_Kohaku_!" Sango hissed. She clenched her throwing hand, wishing she still had something to throw at her. True, there was the cat at her feet, but she couldn't very well throw her pet cat at Kohaku.

It wouldn't be fair to the cat.

Sango finally moved around the stairs enough to be able to see who was at the door. She paled when she saw who it was, and opened her mouth to… to do _something_. Sango wasn't quite sure what. She wanted to yell for Kohaku to slam the door shut in Miroku's face and get away from the vampire before he grabbed him and stole him from her right in front of her eyes….

She pushed off of the stairs, reaching an arm out as she started to run, to pull Kohaku away from the door, and she watched in horror as Kohaku looked back at Miroku, smiling a little. "Since she's finally emerged from her room, you might as well come in and talk to her."

Freezing on the bottom step, she looked down at the door, waiting for his foot to emerge first as Miroku crossed the threshold of her house, followed by his long legs and his large hands, then the leather jacket he always seemed to wear, and then finally his face, wearing a little triumphant smirk. 'Kohaku…' she thought, staring at her twin, distressed. 'Kohaku… what have you done?'

But Miroku didn't walk into the house. Sango peered around the stairs again, trying to see him. "No thank you," he said smoothly. "But I was wondering if Sango might be able to accompany me around the block tonight, for a brief walk."

Kohaku stood up a little taller, trying to be the male of the family and interrogate… He was pushed out of the way when Sango rushed by him, grabbing her heavy fall sweater as she pushed by him. "Don't worry, Kohaku, I won't get caught. I'll be back in ten minutes. If Mom calls, tell her I'm talking a relaxing bath." Kohaku felt a little jealous when he saw the man's hand fall on Sango's shoulder, pulling her away from the house as she continued to say goodbye to him. "I'll be right back!"

He bitterly shut the door, wondering if Sango had brought her house keys with her. For a moment he contemplated shutting the door on her, locking her out. Then she'd need to ring the doorbell and make him feel needed… 'Or she'd just sneak back inside the house the way she always does,' he reminded himself, feeling another stab of jealousy. It seemed like Sango was drifting further and further away from him, that things like school, and maturity, and boys were coming between them, and he hated it.

He wanted his sister back, the way he had had her when there were little, when they were inseparable. He wanted things to be like that again.

Where had his sister gone?

-

Miroku and Sango walked a fair length before they spoke to each other. Sango wasn't one to waste her words, and Miroku was trying to find a way to ask his question. He didn't want to ask it callously and get hit, because he was trying to help her. He also didn't want to bring up Rin. There was a reason why that girl hadn't told others she was a witch like Kagome, and Miroku didn't want to intrude upon Rin's privacy.

Sango was starting to feel the cold a little bit. Her fingers were numb and so she alternated between raising her fingers to her lips and then rubbing them together. She wished that she had grabbed mitts, but she hadn't realized it would be cold out. If Miroku noticed, he didn't offer to help her warm them, for which she was grateful. Sango didn't need to accept _his_ help…

Looking up at the sky, she spoke first. "I haven't been able to see the sky properly since that night in the 60's. Have you?"

"No. But I like that memory because of the company I had that night, rather than seeing the stars. I regret acting without thinking. I would have been prouder sitting with you on some roof and watching the stars together until the sun began to come up and I was forced to leave."

She felt herself start to blush, and then his hand slipped into hers as they walked along. Sango looked up at him and found that he was gazing at her. Her blush deepened, and she squeezed his fingers tightly, warning him. "What are you doing, Miroku?"

"I'm holding your hand."

"I can see that," she growled. "I meant to ask you _why_ are you're holding my hand."

He stopped, still not letting her go despite the way she was mashing his fingers together. His other hand landed at the base of her neck, his fingers entwining with her hair. Miroku loved her hair. His voice was silken as he leaned in a little, his eyes half-closed. It was the expression that men had worn on the soap operas, which Sango had been reduced to watching while on the rest of her suspension, before they kissed someone. She tried not to feel herself get excited about kissing Miroku again, tried to imagine that the look was that of a snake about to strike…

"Because this way if any of your neighbors look out the window, all they'll be able to see if two lovers holding each other," he said, his mouth so close to hers that his breath never had a chance to cool in the air before being warmed by her skin. Sango's lips parted, her large eyes locked on his face, wanting for him to move forward and…

'How come I kissed him yesterday and now I'm nervous about _him_ kissing _me_?' She gulped down her worry. 'Oh God. I've finally lost it. I've gone off the deep end. I'm nuts. I'm off the rocker. I'm…'

She couldn't think of any more euphemisms for going insane. Miroku had caught her attention again. "Sango," he purred, placing the hand that he held on his chest so that he could place his other hand on the small of her back. "I've found a spell that will help make Sesshomaru more vulnerable. However, I need something from you to complete it."

Her scared face stopped looking so worried as she drew her face away from his a little. Her mouth was set into a stubborn line, her brown eyes looking very focused and not amused. "What do you need from me?" she demanded.

Miroku looked at her a long moment, allowing Sango's body to involuntarily shudder when she realized just how close he was to her at that moment. If it wasn't for the hand that he had placed on his chest, she wouldn't have a way to push him away from her. 'Shit,' she thought. 'He can just lean forward and bite me right now and there's very little I can do to stop him…'

"What I need… is your _blood_, Sango."

Everything froze. Even the wind that seemed to have been disturbing Miroku's hair had stilled as soon as Miroku had said the word 'blood'. It was that magical little word that made Sango's blood become chilled from something other than the winter air, something that came deep from inside of her. After a moment, she felt herself being thrown into fast forward. "No! Absolutely not! There's no way that I'm going to let some blood-sucking bastard like you have my…" She struggled to get away from him, suing the hand on his firm chest to try and push him away, slipping her other arm in front of him and trying to escape. He was too strong for her in their current position. He hadn't been numbed by the cold, and no matter how hard she pushed, he kept pulling her close. "Let me _go_!"

"Please, listen to me, Sango!"

She lifted her arm and slapped him as hard as she could without distancing her arm from her body. She needed her arms to protect herself. It didn't make Miroku release her. She doubted that he had even stung it, except that his cheek looked a little darker. "Don't say my name, you bastard! Just let me go! Nobody is getting anything like that from me!"

Her voice wavered more than she had expected, the control she had over it slipping away. Her teeth chattered as she struggled, finally resorting to grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer as she lifted her knee. His groin connected with it, and Miroku released her, stumbling back and doubling over in pain. Sango quickly started walking away, her body still shaking with frustration.

When Miroku recovered, he ran to catch up with her, his strides not as long or as graceful as they normally were. "Sango! Sango, wait!" She didn't wait but he was able to catch up to her. When he saw how hurt and frustrated she looked, at first he didn't understand. And then he saw the fear hiding in her eyes. He took her shoulder, trying to get her to stop, but she shrugged out of his grasp.

Feeling just as hurt, he let her walk on, and Miroku sighed, gathering up his courage. "I'm sorry!" he called after her. Much to his surprise, she stopped. The wind whistled between them, making Sango's long hair ripple. Miroku wanted to reach out to her, but he told himself to stand there. He didn't want to accidentally intimidate her again.

"I'm sorry, Sango," he repeated. "I didn't mean to upset you. I didn't think it was so much, asking for a little bit of blood…"

'A little bit of blood?' she thought fiercely, her mental voice a snarl. 'Every lifetime that I go through, people strip more and more things away from me. They steal my blood, they abuse my body, they toy with my mind, they take my life from me…' The pain from lifetimes before began to burn in her body. It felt like every inch of her was remembering the pain she had lived through. How many times had she felt the teeth of a vampire in her neck? How many times had they left her broken and bleeding before they finally killed her? How many hours of pain had she endured over all of the years? Was there even a piece of her body that they hadn't spoiled?

Her thoughts were loud. They were still such painful wounds even after all the centuries that she was practically broadcasting them. Miroku could pick on them. He didn't mean to pry, but the images were floating around. Miroku froze as he watched fragments of buried memories play across his mind. He felt himself choke. It was… it was…

He shouldn't speak out. He shouldn't say anything about what he had seen. They were flashes of private memories… Yet… how could he _not_ say anything… to offer her a bit of _sympathy_…

"You… you went through all of _that_?"

He mentally bashed himself. 'Great job of showing sympathy you asshole, Miroku.'

"…I never willingly kissed a boy before last night," she said quietly. Her head was turned enough so that he could see her profile, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at her house. She could run to her house and lock all the doors, maybe call Kagome and get her to find a spell to keep her house safe again, to keep Miroku out. Her haven would be safe again, and it was right in front of her, golden lights shining through the front windows… so why wasn't she _going_?

"The first time a vampire ever showed me the slightest bit of kindness was you. You are different from the rest of them. In all my other lifetimes, they were always there, ruining everything in my life. Yes, I've been through all of that. And I will continue to as well. Death and pain are my life, my past, and my future. Nothing can stop that. But… I wish that for once, I could have a little bit of a longer life, do some of the things that I never have before. I wish I could live to see my eighteenth birthday. I wish I could go to prom. I wish that I could…" Her cheeks turned dark pink, and she finally looked back at him, as he stood there helplessly.

"That's why I thought that you were different. You've always made yourself seem that way. You're smart and eloquent, because you like books and learning rather than just seeing immortality as a way to play god with humans. You're considerate. You're a wonderful dancer. You care about the image you put out for yourself in society. And you _are_ very gentle. You treat me like a child… and as much as it annoys me sometimes… I like knowing that you're there to take care of me. Like… a big brother."

Miroku felt a stab of something in his heart. It felt very much like jealousy, something he had become accustomed too as he watched women whom he had loved grow older and marry into relationships, have children with other men and love them… and he had always been jealous of the men for having the life he might have been able to have if he hadn't been cursed with his immortal burden. Somehow, he knew that being looked up to as a big brother wasn't quite what he wanted.

"Which is why it hurt so much, hearing you ask for my blood…" Her voice trailed away as her memories again began to float through the air, hammering into his mind. The pain, the teeth, all the blood she had shed dying to protect people and for revenge…

"I don't want _that_!" he cried, balling his hands as he took a single step forward. "Sango, I don't want _that_! All I want is a few drops…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a glass vial identical to the one Sesshomaru had used. "All I need is half of this with your blood. A prick of your finger should do. Surely you won't begrudge me this much?..."

She looked away from him, her gaze returning to the golden living room window of her house. Miroku could have stepped inside and killed them both. She knew that as well as he did. She had no weapon handy. He could have simply reached inside and snapped Kohaku's neck… but he hadn't. Miroku had kept his promise and kept her home the haven it was supposed to be. Surely that display of generosity deserved another one?  
He moved closer to her, close enough so that he was once again close enough that the heat of his body touched her, that his scent seemed to wrap around her and she felt a little glimmer of happiness just barely out of reach. His breath was on the back of her neck as it floated down from his lips. It was one of the most seductive things she had ever felt, and yet Sango knew he wasn't using sensuality to sway her mind. He was being logical and rational…

He reached around her and held out the vial. "Wouldn't a few drops of blood be enough to take down _Sesshomaru_?"

When he put it that way, the choice was obvious. She took the vial and looked over her shoulder at him. "Got a needle?"

-

Sesshomaru didn't have all the ingredients for the spell. It was unfortunate. 'I shall have to go out and get some,' he told himself. His stomach, however, rumbled. Obviously his body—pesky thing that it could be at times—didn't like the idea of going into the city looking for odd things.

His mind, after a quick retrospect, had to agree. He had been neglecting his feeding habits and he felt himself tiring. He would go out and hunt that night, and find something _young_. The energy a young child or infant would give him would be enough to keep him satiated for several days, and it would give him the energy to perform the spell to make the spells hidden inside the jade box and its two fraternal pieces work properly. He would gather the remaining materials the following night.

'Doesn't that girl that Inuyasha must kill own some kind of a Wiccan shop? I will find out where it is. I will go after hours and gather what I need. Then… as I need the blood of a witch, I will go and visit her house.' He smirked. 'I managed to trick her brother into coming outside. Convincing her mother shouldn't be too hard. Then I will have more than enough witch's blood. And maybe that girl will finally hate Inuyasha enough to guide him into a fight.' The smirk grew as he ran his hand through his hair, fixing it as he stepped out the door. 'After all, I think I can find _something_ to leave behind to make that girl think that it was Inuyasha who killed her mother…'


	22. Witchcraft

The Blooded

AN: Time for battle number two! Sorry guys, no Sango and Miroku in this chapter. I know, I know, I was sad too. But, hopefully a plot twist and a good fight scene—yes, I actually wrote a descent fight scene—will make up for it… as well as telling you that the next chapter 7 pages of Sango and Miroku talking. :grins:

Siren of Erised: Don't worry. That's perfectly normal. I was writing kissing scenes before I had ever been kissed. :fond smile: And Kouga will be back… with a vengeance! I promise! As soon as I get some plot stuff out of the way. I should never have ignored him for this long, I admit it!

Ninalee-chan: I didn't see a way out of it for a long time either… I guess it all depends on one's definition of happy. Myself, I think it's happy. But… there's still plenty of stuff left to go… I wonder if I could get this up to 200, 000 words before then:ponders:

Charific:nods: It's how I explain that he's such a charmer.

Raivyn: No, not in this story. In this story, even if Sesshy dies, all the other vampires will still live.

Aamalie: Read between the lines a little bit more, even go back to the dance scene. There's a lot of reasons why that would bother Sango. I didn't want to get into it too much, but you're smart, so I'm sure that you can do the math: sixteen year old girl (or something) + evil vampires.

DarkSlayer: I'm glad that you agree!

I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the plot twists! I love them myself. And on that note, I apologize for the cliffhanger. But, trust me for a little bit and I promise that I'll update soon. I try to be consistent! Though I missed out on a lot of sleep this week… Why is eight hours of sleep so necessary for my body:le sigh:

Thank you for all the reviews. Have fun reading, everyone! I'm sorry it's not as long as usual (FYI, the last one was a whopping fourteen pages).

**Chapter Twenty-Two: **

**Witchcraft**

Thursday, October 2nd, 9:00 pm.

Rin yawned, running her fingers through her wet hair as she walked into her bedroom. There was nothing like a nice, warm shower before one went to bed to make you feel nice and relaxed. She smiled deliriously, picking up her hairbrush and about to sit down and brush the tangles from her hair when she noticed the envelop sitting on her nightstand. The handwriting on it was perfect, and it looked… _old_.

'Miroku,' she thought, opening the envelope over her bed. She snuggled deeper into her housecoat and examined the items he had sent her. There was a lock of hair, a small package of dried things, a small vial of blood—which freaked her out a little bit—and a letter. She reached for the letter and read it carefully

_Dearest Rin, _

_Here are the last ingredients you will need for the spell. Remember what little I taught you. I wish I could have taught you more. Take your time. Read all the directions carefully. You would be amazed at how often those two things are responsible for a spell going wrong. I wish that I could have given you this in person, but I need to feed. I neglected it last night, and I don't want to lose control while I'm around you. I hope you understand._

_You'll be a wonderful witch, Rin._

_Believe in your self. …and keep your nose clean, Pet._

_Love,_

_Miroku_

Rin sniffled and carefully folded the envelop back up. She got off her bed and hid it between her mattresses, where no one would ever find it. Sitting back down on the bed, she grabbed her pillow and lay down, stroking the strands of silver hair on the bed. They were from Sesshomaru. They were nice and soft. But… she was thinking of Miroku, unable to shake the feeling that she wasn't going to get to see him again.

She didn't know how long she lay like that. Eventually she had picked up the vial of blood and let it slide back and forth, watching the way it moved. Blood was such an odd thing. It could hold so much power… but what was it really? Nothing but plasma, platelets, white blood cells and red blood cells. There was nothing there that was magical. There was nothing there that made this blood any different than any one else's. But then you looked down a level deeper and there were genes. There were the building blocks of life. DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid. That was where the differences were. That was what made this blood different than hers. It was what gave Sango and Kohaku such a strong connection. And yet it was nothing but a handful of different chemicals thrown together to make a human being.

Rin couldn't understand it.

Eventually, she got up and turned on the radio, listening to Coldplay on the easy rock station as she got into the warmest, fluffiest pajamas that she could find. There was nothing like a pair of fluffy pajamas to make a person feel safe, happy, and comfortable. Pajamas were the comfort food of clothing.

Rin reached for the phone and dialed Kohaku's number.

Kohaku was downstairs in the living room playing video games when the phone rang. He didn't hear it at first. "Damn it, Leggy! Legolas! Block! Parry, damn it, parry!" Only after the blonde elf had been killed did he realize that the phone had been ringing. He put down the controller and lunged for the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Kohaku," Rin greeted, trying to sound happy and friendly. Her hand was shaking as she reread the spell. She recognized his voice immediately. There was just something about his voice that _sounded_ like it would belong to a freckled, geeky boy who was adorably sweet. "What are you doing?"

"Playing some 'Two Towers'. But it's not like it's important." He flicked off the game immediately and leaned back on the couch, coughing and trying to sound more adult. He casually added. "It's not important, though. I've beaten that game lots of times."

The girl giggled. She knew that he was lying. "Kohaku, would it be at all possible for you to come over to my house for an hour or two? I know that it's late, but I could really use your help with something."

He was off the couch in a flash. "No problem, Rin! I'll be over before you know it!"

"Thank you, Kohaku." There was the hint of a smile in her voice. She sounded relieved.

Ten minutes later, Kohaku was running out of the house, when he stopped and cursed. His brown eyes watched the snowflake as it drifted down to the ground. Snow. It was already snowing. He went back inside and grabbed a pair of mittens… just in case.

-

Kagome put the finishing touches on the spell, giving her simmering cauldron one final stir. She smiled when it was completed, leaning back and wiping her wet forehead. 'That spell was a bitch,' she thought contentedly. She was proud to have gotten through it. Kagome sighed and leaned forward, grabbing the ceremonial goblet sitting next to her lightly smoking cauldron. She rarely used the goblet, but she figured that this was rather ceremonial, so she might as well get some wear and tear out of it.

As she had walked to the store, nature had told her everything. The Earth was quiet; life was starting to settle down. The cool air had a crisp edge to it. Winter was coming fast, and all the omens she had seen told Kagome that she would not live to see the second snowfall.

Thinking about it, her hand trembled as she scooped out some of the broth from inside the cauldron, pouring it into the goblet. Her shaking hand spilled a drop or two, and it landed in the fire under the cauldron, making the fire hiss and spit like a tiger. Kagome grimaced, trying not to think about the ingredients that had gone into the broth. If she did, she knew she'd ruin her whole batch by vomiting it back up. Then she made the mistake of smelling it.

She stuck out her tongue and moved the offensive cup away. 'You know,' she thought to herself, 'whoever comes up with these spells never thinks of the taste of them. Just once I'd like to make a spell that smells like freshly baked cookies rather than the inside of a boy's locker room.'

Kagome took a deep breath and plugged her nose. She guzzled down the broth as quickly as she could. It burned her throat as it went down, and afterwards she held her tummy, reminding herself again not to think about what was inside of the spell she had just made. Kagome somehow managed to keep from vomiting it back up. Satisfied, she then opened up the back of Real Fruit gummies she had brought with her, as a reward for being a brave girl and taking the potion. The sugar helped made her feel good as well, and Kouga wasn't around, so she didn't have to worry about him stealing her candy, or about him calling her a hypocrite for eating junk food when she told him that his body needed the benefits of a good stick of celery.

'Are you calling me fat?' he would always reply, looking shocked. Kagome giggled, recalling their fake fights fondly.

'I hope he's going to be happy. I would love to do a spell for him so that he could find someone perfect and fall in lo… no. No, Kagome!' She folded up the bag of gummies and began to tidy of the back of the store, chiding herself for even _thinking_ about working a love spell. 'Witches don't do love spells. It's black magic. It's _bad_ magic,' she corrected herself, regretting that she had fallen into the trap of calling good magic "white" and bad magic "black".

There were no color differences in magic, but there was still good and bad. Good magic was things that were helpful, like charms or good luck spells. Bad magic was magic that toyed with people, like their hearts. She _could_ do a spell to help Kouga find happiness, but it would all be a lie.

This was why she hadn't wanted to start using the spell books in the basement. Once one started toying with that magic, toying with _people_ and playing God, it was hard to stop. Power was addictive. The feeling of happy exhaustion after having completed a complicated spell was addictive, and while flipping through the books in her basement, Kagome had found some wonderfully complicated spells. She shook her head again, putting away powdered butterfly wings where they belonged and then pouring out the water she hadn't used.

'I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to be tempted by it.'

Kagome looked around the front of the store. She loved her mother's store. It was so wonderful. It was like something from a picture book. Just about everything was white, without a speck of dust. Colored bottles lined the shelves, carefully labeled: ointments, oils, massage oils, cooking ingredients, and all-natural shampoos. There was a colorful—yet tasteful—display at the front counter of all-natural soaps that smelled wonderful. After closing, it always smelled lemony fresh from the cleaning agents her mother used. The cash register was old, decorated with nickel designs coated to look like bronze and gold.

She started feeling herself becoming sentimental, crying because she knew she was going to miss everything she was going to leave behind. She shook her head, her long black hair shimmering like delicate strands of hematite in the stillness of the shop. "Stop being silly, Kagome," she chided herself out loud. "You're not dead yet, so you still have time to enjoy things like this. Don't be such a drama queen." She rolled her eyes, feeling much better now that she had heard a real voice, and she reached up on her tip toes to put away the Real Fruits she kept hidden on the top shelf of the book shelf.

"So you're Kagome."

The deep, silken voice startled her and she jumped away, the open bag of sweets falling and scattering on the ground. She whirled around, her blue eyes almost glowing with fear. There was a man in the store. She didn't know how he had gotten in… the door was still padlocked behind him, there hadn't been the sounds of any windows breaking…

And then her eyes rose up to _really_ look at his face and she had to resisted to keep herself from letting out a choked scream. "Y… y…" He was clearly amused by the way she struggled to get out a feasible word, but how she was able to perceive his emotion when not an iota of his face changed, she didn't know. Finally, she was able to spit it out. _"YOU!"_

He was surprised. She hadn't spat it out as he had expected. She had the audacity to yell in his presence. And it had been a furious word. She had said it anger, with protectiveness, with… with a _ruthlessness_ he had not believed possible for such a little human to possess, witchling or no.

Was it possibly that she said it with such fearsomeness because she had somehow known that it was him who had killed her young sibling? Could she have seen through his disguise? No. It wasn't possible. Nobody had ever seen through his disguises! His thoughts narrowed dangerously, directing solely on the angry young girl in front of him. Sesshomaru especially wasn't going to have his disguises seen through by some green-thumbed little hedgewitch!

"_Get out of my store_!" she hollered, indicating the door."I don't know how you got in here, but you can leave in the same way!" Her blue eyes stared at him, narrowing, and she could hardly believe that she was intending to scare away the father of all vampires with nothing but a glare. But the glare at always worked with humans, thanks to the unnerving color of her eyes, so she was hoping it might work on him as well.

Unfortunately, she had no such luck. Sesshomaru advanced on her slowly. He didn't make a sound. Not even his loose white shirt. Kagome's gaze darted to it. He moved so lightly it didn't even ripple. Her eyes widened slightly and she took a step back. She was in over her head; she was in over her head and she knew it. 'Inuyasha…' she though frantically, wishing he would show up and protect her. She didn't need help fighting Kuranosuke, but _this_? This was too big… too much…

'Don't be so childish, girl! Run! Get out! Find a weapon!' She gave herself a mental smack. 'Do you want to act helpless? Do you want to die? Find something! Act! Do something!' Her mental voice paused dramatically, searching for something that would help fuel that anger further. 'Do you want to end up like Souta!'

There it was. She latched on to the anger and clenched one of her hands, feeling warmth there suddenly. She opened it, air rushing in between her fingers and between her thumb and her palm and the fire snapped to life. She threw the ball of fire at Sesshomaru, blinded by the image of her brother and the anger of knowing that this was the man who had killed him. "Get out!"

He dodged the fireballs. No, he didn't even dodge them. He was so quick to her untrained eyes that all he did was step aside at the last moment and then step back so quickly that it looked as if the fireball had really gotten right through him. Her jaw dropped and again she felt that sinking feeling starting to sneak up on her. Kagome fought it away, another fireball in her hand.

"I can see why Inuyasha likes you," he said, tilting his head and looking down at her. She felt like he was looking at her as he would a street dog that Inuyasha said he wanted to keep. Kagome studied him briefly, wondering what he was playing at. "You are quite beautiful. You don't have any classical beauty, but there is something about you… it's such a shame he doesn't like smart girls."

"I _am_ smart," Kagome grumbled.

"Oh? Then why do you attack me without provocation?"

"You're a _murderer_! You killed my brother! Why should I trust you for one second?"

He swallowed. It was amazing how the sound cut through even the tiny fire burning under her cauldron. She knew that something she said had unnerved him, and Sesshomaru suddenly began to wonder just how strong this girl really was. She had been strong enough to see through his disguise, and no doubt her powers had become more refined since then. She held her fireball over her shoulder, ready to throw it at any second.

They stared each other, Kagome trying to think of a plan. She knew she couldn't win if she fought. She could cut herself, hope that maybe the scent of her blood might bring Inuyasha to her… but the only reason why that had worked before was because she had been using a spell. If she tried that, she'd only be making herself weaker and making him stronger with the scent of blood. She was caught behind the counter. The door had bars on them, as did the large panels of window. The front and back doors were padlocked, and in the time she would need to turn her back to unlock them, he'd be on her.

'Maybe I can trust him,' she suddenly thought, a cool voice in the back of her mind rationalizing everything. 'He was in here for a moment or two if he heard me talking to myself, and he didn't attack me. Maybe I was wrong. I should put down my fire, and then we can talk like…'

_"Stop it!"_

His mind was suddenly flung back into his body. His gold eyes widened with respect. He had known that Inuyasha's mind control wouldn't work on her—that was why he needed to kill her, after all. But she was also strong enough for _his_ mind control to take effect. She _was_ strong…

He stepped a little closer to the counter. She back up a little, rather than throwing the ball of magic she held. She might be strong, but she was still scared of him. He stared at her, his unblinking golden gaze not leaving her eyes. Kagome stared back just as hard, though she had to blink. She was only human, after all.

The edges of his lips began to curl up into a faint smile. He saw it in her eyes. He saw it in the way she refrained from attacking him. "Inuyasha likes you because you're full of spitfire, but you're a bleeding heart, aren't you? He always was too human, that boy."

"What do you want?" she growled.

"I came for a few magical supplies," he said, gesturing around the store, as if asking why else he would come to her store.

"Well that's too bad. We're closed right now. You're going to have to come back tomorrow. You can walk in the sunlight, Sesshomaru, so you have no excuse for breaking in after hours. Please leave."

He finally made a move. He raised his hand, throwing a fireball at her. She threw hers and they met mid-air, sending a shower of sparks everywhere. Sesshomaru moved over the counter like... like… like nothing Kagome had ever seen before. He was so damned quick! It was like he had the ability to transport. Kagome's fingers managed to snag the handle of her cauldron as he spun her around. He hadn't seen her grab the cauldron, her body being in the way. Sure, it was dangerous turning her back to an enemy, but Kagome was quick too. She had to be, to avoid getting beaten up more than she already did.

As she spun, she threw the contents of the small cauldron. Some of it landed on the walls and bookshelves behind the counter, but most of it struck Sesshomaru. He let out a roar of pain. Not a literary one, a real one, like the kind a savage animal gave when it was badly injured. Kagome stopped staring at him as his hands covered up his face, scrambling to get over the counter and to the front door. Her hands were reaching into her pants' pocket for the keys to the padlocked door. She could still hear his cries of pain.

'Come on, Kagome! Move! _Move_!'

"You're going to pay for that, _bitch_!"

Hands gripped her suddenly, entangling in her long hair as claws scratched at he scalp. She creamed in pain and horror, and madness. Had she only been a little bit faster… the padlock was in her hand! His hands were on her shoulder, trying to turn her around and drag her to the ground all at the same time. She struggled, but the hands were too strong. It felt as if her bones were bending in Sesshomaru's grip.

The padlock slipped out of her grip and she fell, his strength turning her around and slamming her into the ground. She was stunned, coughing, wheezing as she felt the wind get knocked from her chest. She wanted to vomit from the feeling. Then she saw his face and she really did want to be ill.

The boiling water had burned his face. It covered his lips, misshaping them, and one cheek, his nose, and a bit of his forehead. The swollen, molten skin shut one eye. It was red, slick looking at caked with bits of black, dried and burned blood, but with puffy white blisters doting his skin,

It made Sesshomaru look like a monster.

He laughed suddenly at her fear, laughed as he held her to the ground with one hand, his other hand wrapped in her hair and pulling so hard that her eyes were filling with tears. She watched, as blurry as her vision was becoming, as the skin began to ebb away, the porcelain tone of his perfect skin reappearing as he healed himself.

"That," he said, untangling his hand from his hair and unsheathing his claws, like a cat. "That was _very _stupid."

Her eyes focused on the claws as she tried to pull her hands off of him. She couldn't even grip his pinky. Kagome grabbed his wrist with both of her hands, pushing the fire straight into him. He only laughed, the sound chilling her as she continued trying to free herself. But her eyes never left his claws. They were retractable, like those of a cat's, and now that they were out… 'It's like he was the inspiration for Freddy Kruger…'

Sesshomaru's nose twitched as he sniffed her. He could smell fear, but it was nowhere near what it should be. His hand was poised above her, ready to stab her in her heart. His weapons were designed for sliding cleanly between the ribs of human beings… He didn't care if he was stealing Inuyasha's kill. She had attacked him. It was his right to kill her.

She wasn't nearly as afraid as she should be. He had given people bloodier deaths than the one he was planning on giving her for less.

"Why aren't you afraid?" he asked suddenly. The question was posed so innocently, that it sounded so much like Inuyasha, it startled Kagome for a second. "I might yet spare your life if you asked me for it, and yet you persist in fighting me when you know that it's hopeless. Why aren't you begging? Why aren't you fighting death harder, in a way that will actually win?"

"Do you think that I actually fear death from _you_, Sesshomaru?" she laughed. "The stars had predicted that Inuyasha was going to be the one to kill me. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe it was you they saw, and not him. You two do look a like, after all." The grip she had on his skin twisted, giving him an Indian rug burn as her brother had called it when he had first tricked her into giving her one. She was happy when he hissed a little in pain. "I only wish you could rip your soul from your body and bring it with me."

"Feisty bitch, aren't you?"

The magnetism in the room began to change its charge. He felt his hair starting to lift from his shoulders. The air was practically crackling, and as he watched Kagome's face, her blue eyes seemed to brighten as she drew energy from everything around her, collecting in and around herself. The hand holding her down began to itch with electricity, more annoying than the heat she had been shoving into his arm. At least that had been vaguely pleasant, and in fact, it had only served to make him stronger. Rule number one to being immortal: don't let anyone know your weakness, so Sesshomaru had weaned himself on fire and wood, until he had become nearly impervious to both. Rin had figured it out: it was ice that hurt him.

Sesshomaru wasn't going to take the chance that she was charging up an ice spell right now. He drew back his claws and struck her so hard she fell into unconsciousness. He released her, letting her lie on the floor with a bit of blood running from her nose, to pace. The energy began to return to normal.

She was strong… she had guts… she was brave, if foolhardy…she's wasn't bad looking… quite pretty in an alien way. He could see why Inuyasha liked her. And Inuyasha did like her. That was the thing that sealed the deal. He rubbed his jaw, feeling his teeth descend, sharpening and lengthening into killing weapons. Sesshomaru smiled, his eyes glowing in the dark shop, with only the small fire lighting it. He leaned over her body.

Continuing to push Inuyasha into killing Kagome would only make him hate Sesshomaru more and more. Sesshomaru realized this. He didn't want Inuyasha to hate him. So Sesshomaru would make the choice for Inuyasha.


	23. Rebirth

AN: Aw! My little baby is at two hundred reviews! Thank you so much! There's lots of scene flipping back and forth in this chapter, to try and build tension… other than that, I have nothing to say because I have to continue doing homework. :sighs: I got my essay back for English class… I got a 63, for all those who are interested. Luckily, it only counts as ten percent of my mark in that class, and six out of ten isn't too bad. In the end, it's only a two percent difference than someone who got an eighty, but it's still very disappointing.

I hope everyone has a better week than mine :grins:

I apologize for the cliffie. Sadly, that one wasn't the last. But there's no cliffhanger in this chapter!

Regarding the spell: I should clarify. Kagome _drank_ the spell. That's how it workis. What was left was what she didn't drink: boiling water. It hurt Sesshy because it was boiling water and it gave him third degree burns.

Aamalie: You're getting very good at figuring out my plot twists. And yes. Make Corisu update, please! But, please, don't figure out all my plot twists! I want to surprise you still, you know.

Fantastical Queen: Does every Sango fan find that Kagome is unbearable or something?

Siren: Eh, I can't spell it either. Kohaku was invited over to act as her lookout because Rin isn't supposed to do magic. And Sesshy is much with the awesome. He gets even better in this chapter. I think I managed to turn him into a bastard… which was my goal.

Chadrific: Kagome is planning to die because she did a reading (ie. Tarot card, tea leaves, whatever you want) and it told her Inuyasha was going to kill her. Sango is planning to die because Sesshomaru is always one step ahead of her and kills her whenever they meet each other. She knows that no matter how hard she tries to fight him, she'll never be strong enough or fast enough, and so she's desperate to see him die; desperate enough to give Miroku her blood and resort to magic.

Lily: The comedy in this chapter will hopefully help. I spend all day today saying: I can't wait until I can go home and update the Ghandi chapter! You'll understand.

Ninalee-chan: This is my social life. Until my boyfriend comes over and I actually leave my house and go to the movies with him or whatnot… but we only see each other every three weeks or so, so for most of the month, I have no social life. Instead I drink Coke and sit here writing to relax. Why:grins: Because reviews make me feel better, and I love seeing what kind of devious plots I can create. It's… mental exercises for my muse. And I'm glad that you don't have fireballs… I like my body un-singed.

Enjoy, everyone!

**Chapter Twenty-Three: **

**Rebirth**

"Sango!" a cheery voice called out.

She turned around and was surprised that it was Miroku. It had sounded like him, of course, but she hadn't been really certain. The cheerfulness had seemed a little uncharacteristic of him at first, so she thought that maybe it was Kouga and her mind was playing tricks on her. But when she turned and saw him, with that stupid smile on his face, she wondered if maybe it did suit him. Who knew what he had been like in life? Maybe he had been a little like Kouga or Kohaku before he had become a vampire…

"Hello, Miroku." Since when did she feel so casual like this around him? Where was the hidden animosity? Where was the little voice in the back of her head that always had an eye out for an attack?

He smiled at her. It wasn't one of his charming smiles. It was simple, and friendly… and honest. Sango felt her heart softening, even though she wanted to stop it. Fight? She wanted to lust after Miroku… she could go ahead and do that. It was nothing but a chemical reaction and she would forget all about him in her next life. But she _refused_ to feel anything like pity, or friendship, towards Miroku.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked, honestly sounding concerned.

Nodding, she asked in return, "How is the spell going?"

He bowed his head a little, shyly indicating that they could continue walking. As they started moving, he answered her. "I have Rin working on it. Hopefully it should be done soon. I don't want to keep you waiting, after all."

"Rin?" Sango repeated. She looked ahead a moment, watching the snow start to fall, and her faint smile turned into a large one when she noticed that Miroku's breath wasn't turning into a fog in the night air. When he realized his mistake and it came out in a ghost-like mist, she laughed. "So, Rin's a witch, is she? I have to admit, that's a little unexpected."

"What? Oh… yes," he stammered, quickly regaining his composure. Sango's laughter had startled him. It had been… wonderful. It had been heartwarming, lightening, all the things a laugh was supposed to be. She looked beautiful in the cold weather. Her cheeks were bright pink, her long hair done up in a ponytail and swinging as she walked, the snowflakes landing in her dark hair and melting, turning into dew on her body. She looked like… she was alive. And then, by comparison, there was him, who had to expend energy just to make his breath appear.

"Why didn't you get Kagome to do it?"

He shrugged. "I couldn't find her. Besides, Rin is more than able to do it. She just needs a bit of training so that she can control her power. She'll be a wonderful witch once she gets some training. She's about as strong as Kagome is, actually."

She snorted. "Kagome is probably out with Inuyasha." Her tone was more than enough to tell Miroku that she obviously thought this was a deplorable idea.

Miroku didn't bother telling her that Inuyasha was still sleeping back at their loft. Maybe Kagome was with him. He smirked. It had taken Inuyasha long enough to get laid after that incident with the hooker in France… He kicked a loose pebble along the sidewalk. It bounced off a crack, lost in the long grass of someone's front yard. "So… if you're feeling better, does that mean that we might be able to do something tonight? I mean, Kagome isn't around, she'll be mad if you kill Inuyasha so you can't hunt him, and you're waiting for Sesshomaru, so there's no one left for you to kill, right? So I was hoping that maybe we could do something?"

When had he become so nervous around girls? Miroku tried to write off his nervousness because of the fact that Sango was armed with a stake, and that she could kick his ass. But she hadn't been the first girl he had met who could do that. Miroku loved a woman who could put up a fight. He was just scared of rejection.

"You're wrong. There is one more vampire I can kill," she said, pointing at him. He gulped. She looked quite serious, the smile and laughter wiped from her face as she looked at him. "I will eventually, Miroku. There's no denying that fact. Either you kill me, and I come back, or I'll kill you. Death is the only thing in the future for us."

"_You're _wrong," he said. Sango blinked in surprise, and he smiled at her, offering her his arm. "Come and get a coffee with me, and I'll explain everything to you. Everything Sango: myself, how I came to be what I am, and why _you_ of all people have to stop believing that there is nothing but bad in the world."

After a moment of hesitation, Sango took his arm.

-

Sesshomaru remembered something else, and he searched the storeroom for a container, something that he could use to catch her blood. He needed the blood of a witch for a spell, and as he was planning on killing her anyway, he might as well use what he had. It would keep him from needing to kill that girl Rin. Miroku had laid a claim on her, and so it would keep Miroku from getting mad at him for killing her.

Humans, after all, were a penny a dozen, but witches? They were a little rarer.

Finding a jar, he also grabbed an athame, that way he wouldn't need to use his claws. He cut a finger, and drained her blood into the jar the way a farmer would milk a cow. When he had enough, Sesshomaru sealed the jar and placed it carefully aside.

Reaching back, he pulled his hair off of his shoulders. He didn't want to get any blood in his hair. Sesshomaru then grabbed Kagome by her shirt and lifted her up. Unconscious, her head lolled back. It was perfect. Wrapping an arm around her body, he straddled her as his eyes scanned her neck for the perfect spot. A vein pulsed gently on her neck, and he licked his lips. He wasn't really hungry, as he had already fed, but there was something about witch-blood that was different from any other taste.

Lowering his head, he licked the spot clean with his long, warm tongue. She didn't even stir at the sensation. Sesshomaru grinned, revealing the long teeth that normally reached to the bottom of lip, softly curving. His eyes glowed in the dim room, and he moved as slowly as he could, wanting to revel in every minute of killing Kagome.

-

They walked to the coffee shop in silence. Miroku even opened the door for her. She opened her mouth to point out that she was more than capable of opening a door herself, when she saw his expression. He looked happy, surprisingly so, and he looked like he had just opened the door to be nice. Sango chided herself mentally. She had to stop acting as if everything Miroku did was going to lead her into a trap, or an ambush of some kind.

'But,' she thought as they waited in line. 'I can't start acting like I'm on a date for my first time or anything.' Just the thought of it made her want to smile and made her want to start floating a long the ground, acting like… like Juliet after she met Romeo, where all her thoughts were of him and she was dreaming of a future and speaking in wonderful poetry and metaphors… She was the Slayer. She couldn't act like that!

They stood in line, and Sango ordered apple cider. Miroku chose to do the same, and she was a little surprised when he paid for it. She could feel the color come to her cheeks as he held out a chair for her, and she sat down. All of a sudden it became _very_ hard to imagine they weren't on a date. If it wasn't for the awkward silence, Sango would be completely enjoying herself. Then she spoke and the silence disappeared.

"I never in my life would have thought that the man they refer to as the Judge could actually start acting like some gallant man from a romance story," she remarked.

Sadness flitted across his face, but he smiled at away. "I wasn't always called that though. Once upon a time, I was just a man."

"Once upon a time? Are you certain that you're not telling me a wonderful story, Miroku?" she teased. Sango could hardly believe it. She… was teasing someone… and it wasn't the type of teasing to goad someone into fighting her! She held her cup in her hands, blowing on it to cool it off. His eyes watched her, though he stirred his cider with a spoon. Her features softened slightly, strands of her dark hair spilling over her shoulder as she leaned forward, interested. "Tell me about it."

"Well, I was born roughly seven centuries ago, in Japan. I was born into a loving, warm family. They were simple farmers, but I wanted something more in my life, and so when I was around the age of ten, I left my family to become a monk. I wanted to learn. I wanted to be able to read and write and know mathematics, and science. More than anything, it was science that drove me. I wanted to know why there were stars in the sky and why there was winter. And yes, there was a spiritual side to it too, a large one, now that I think back to those years. I wanted to learn more about the ways of Buddha, more about enlightenment.

"And then I met Sesshomaru, after I had fallen from my path to the shadowed side of it. I had burned down a whole village because they had killed my master. He was just an innocent old man, and they had killed him without realizing that he had been telling the truth the entire time." He shook his head sadly as he remembered it. "I was stupid for ever agreeing to Sesshomaru's proposal."

She arched an eyebrow. "And what proposal was that?"

He looked out the window after a moment, and continued. "He offered me two things. He appealed to my sense of having been wronged, offering me the chance to play god. That was why I ended up becoming the Judge. I'd kill anybody who broke the law, be it human, demon, or vampire alike. Laws are enforced for a reason. The second was my desire for knowledge. He told me that by going with him I could learn centuries' worth of knowledge.

"Sesshomaru was right, too. I did learn lifetimes of things: I left Japan and moved to the Mediterranean. There, I lived throughout the renaissance, listening to the great thinkers of the world. I watched DaVinci paint. I watched philosophers discuss. I learned to read and write in Greek and Latin. After awhile, I became homesick and I moved back to Japan for awhile. There, I met Inuyasha. We were two of a kind, us." He took a deep breath, turning back to her.

"We continued to move, after he became one of us. We met famous people, and I continued to learn. That is what my whole life has consisted of, Sango: moving and learning. I met Descartes; I had tea with Napoleon before he had even become a member of the French army; I nearly ran over Johnny Depp with my car when he was nine years old." She stared at him in shock, and he smiled, though it kind of resembled a grimace. "I'm not kidding."

"I know," Sango said. Somehow, she did not. She didn't need to read his aura to know that he was telling the truth. "That's why I'm surprised. I can't imagine a world without Johnny." She took a sip of her cider to hide the fact that she was starting to smile. She didn't want to start opening herself up to him, but the more he talked, the more she understood. She too, knew why he liked moving around so much. When you lived as long as they did, had as many lifetimes as they did, one needed to continue moving to keep from getting bored. She needed to stop the conversation before she continued to empathize with him more. But instead she found herself asking: "Who was the most interesting famous person you ever met?"

"Mary Wollstonecraft."

"You met the mother of the author of _Frankenstine_?" Sango asked in a whisper, lowering her coffee mug. Now she felt more than interested. She scooted her chair a little closer. "What was she like?"

He thought a moment and then pointed his finger at her. Her jaw dropped in surprise, the sparkle of interest growing. "No, really, she's a little bit like you. Your emotions, you keep them hidden. She kept hers hidden too. I didn't even know that she was suffering from depression until her fist suicide attempt. She was a good listener too, but her tongue was sharp. When she spoke, people _listened_." He paused, taking a sip of his cider. He enjoyed the warmth it made as it slid down his throat. "What about you? Who was the most interesting famous person you ever met?"

She thought a moment, and then she replied, "I guess it would have to be… Mahatma Ghandi."

This time he was the one who stared in shock. He nearly dripped cider down his shirt, but he up righted his cup at the last second. He swallowed, his black bangs making his eyes look even more violet as they fell across his face. "You met _Ghandi_?"

"Only briefly. I can't really say how interesting he was or anything, because I didn't meet him for very long. I just think the meeting itself was interesting. I kind of…" She mumbled the rest behind her mug, but Miroku heard her anyway. He was a vampire, after all. And he stared at her in shock.

"You _hit GHANDI_?" he hissed quietly. Sango's cheeks went from pink to flaming red, and it didn't help when Miroku laughed loudly at the mental image. He ended up laughing so hard he was crying, and Sango was throwing napkins at him, before she became embarrassed even more.

"If you don't shut up," Sango eventually warned, setting down her mug, "I'm going to leave."

"Sorry," he wheezed, taking a sip to hide that he was still laughing.

Picking her own mug back up, letting the warmth flow into her fingers, she felt his legs touch hers. The limbs slid down until they found her feet and he rubbed the side of his foot slowly back against her ankles. 'Dear God… I'm playing footsies…' Which brought up another interesting question. "Out of curiosity, why do you like sex so much, Miroku?"

"Well, for one thing, it's sex," he laughed, running his long fingers through his dark hair. "Second, I suppose that as I had given up everything else from the life I had had before I became what I am today, I figured that I might as well give up abstinence as well. Third, because every woman is different, it's very hard to get tired of sex. Each night, each woman, each touch and scent and taste is different. Fourth, it's a very easy way to get ahead in life, being someone's lover. You're only needed at night, and it's a good way to make a meal on a regular basis. My lovers were, for the most part, a means of escape for a few brief hours a night, as well as a meal when they could spare the blood."

She nearly spat out her cider. "For a few _hours_? Holy shit, Miroku! What kind of stuff do you do with these women?"

She should have stopped herself from asking the question. She should have known better than to even think about asking it. As soon as she had asked it, Miroku smiled charmingly, with a small perverted twist on his face, and he reached across the table, holding her hand gently. It was still warm from his mug. "If you wanted, Sango, I could always show you."

"Let go of me now before I break your fingers," she said calmly, staring him straight in the eye. It was a bad idea, looking him straight in the eye. His grey-violet eyes were oddly warm, oddly comforting and inviting…. She pulled her gaze away and finished her threat. "You'd recover, eventually. But until you do I can guarantee you astounding amounts of pain."

He let go of her hand, chuckling. "Like I said, Sango. When you talk, people listen."

'I wonder how long it's been since he started saying my name and not those annoying pet-names he had. It seems… it seems as if he's been calling me by my name since he met me. It just sounds so natural coming from him.' But despite her considerate sentiments, she couldn't help but wonder about something that bothered her since he had started talking. Besides the fact that he hadn't explained to her how she was wrong when she thought that there was nothing but death in the world, there was also the little matter of some of the more inhumane things he had done in his life…

"I don't believe you," she said curtly, tossing her hair back over her shoulder. His foot still rubbed her ankle, but se wasn't playing back. "You can explain a lot Miroku, but then how do you explain all the things you've done in the name of science? Thus far you've proven yourself to be a bleeding heart: bringing me soup, carrying me home, not taking advantage of me when I was weak. And yet the things in the past that you've done disgust me."

"Allow me to explain, Sango. You see, when a vampire is made, they know that they only have so long before everything becomes too much for them. There's only so many hunts, so much blood and death, so many things that a person can take before everything breaks. I hit mine about five hundreds years ago. Back then, I was ready to die. I knew that there was still famous people I was going to meet, and things to learn, but when I thought of the lives I had ruined, it wasn't worth the cost. I didn't want to keep living knowing that I was ruining peoples' lives. I was ready to die. Inuyasha bought me a little bit of time, because I didn't want to leave someone that impressionable alone in Sesshomaru's hands. I am ready to die, Sango."

"You were ready to die a century ago, from the way you're talking," she agreed. She had met vampires that were using her as a way out. Frankly, Sango was glad to have them out of her hair and off her planet. "Why haven't you done it yet then? It wouldn't take much, not if you were willing. Just stand on the beach and wait for sunrise and take a nap or something."

He shook his head. "It's not that simple. I gave up other thinks, Sango. I may drink, I may associate with women, but I still believe that to take my own life is a mortal sin. It's bad enough that I became a vampire. I want to do something to make my life worth something, to make me proud of the life I chose, to make me feel like I accomplished something. This is only after I performed years of experiments to see if there was anyway to reverse the process of becoming a vampire. That was going to be my great success, and then I was going to become human myself and live a normal life: have a wife, have kids, get a job… see the sunrise again, stand to greet the sun as it rises and bask in the glory of the day time again."

He said it with such intensity that Sango could almost feel his longing. She glared at him still, however, not entirely satisfied. "But you did those experiments on children. _Children_, Miroku! And back then, their kind of anesthesia was alcohol and you dissected them while they were still _alive_!"

Much to her annoyance, he merely smirked and tapped his temple lightly. "That, Sango," he purred, "is part of why I love telepathy. It's useful in so many different scenarios. They were alive, yes, but they were asleep. Trust me, they didn't feel a thing. Inuyasha likes inflicting pain and making things look messy. I prefer neat, quick, painless kills myself. Except for feeding. If people struggle, it's _quite_ painful, but if they relax and actually give blood to us willingly, it's… well, some people have mistaken it for orgasms. That's why it's so easy to feed in the middle of having sex."

Sango felt suddenly very silly. And then, she realized, underneath that, she didn't know what to feel. She was… a void. No, not a void. It wasn't that her emotions and left her and she was suddenly apathetic, it was that she was _open_, open to the idea of accepting the things he was telling, open to the feelings he was feeling, open to understanding… She was an empty book waiting to be written upon, a pot without a flower, an earth without life…

She was suddenly half a person, and it left her feeling very small. She was staring at Miroku like she hadn't seen him before, and vice versa. The air was suddenly very hard to breathe. She blinked, her voice a whisper. "Sometimes I've felt that way as well. I just want to give up…"

"I wish I was more like you," he was saying at the same time, reaching across the table and brushing her chin gently. "You're doing something that's changing the world, protecting it." Confusion danced across her face and he looked outside groping for a way to explain it. "What do you see outside?"  
"Winter coming in sooner than it's supposed to. Everything is dying."

"No, it's not. It's going to sleep, and eventually the spring will come and with the spring will come new life again. It's just going to sleep. And with Christmas will come everything wonderful. Families going tobogganing; ski trips; lovers skating hand in hand; snow angels, snow ball fights, Christmas lights and menorahs, Kwanza, Chanukah, New Year's… Winter is full of life. You've just forgotten it all and you need someone to show you.

"Look at us, here. We're just here, having a conversation. It's an everyday, normal activity, and not too many people think of it as being something amazing in itself. Besides the physical ability to speak being amazing, and this ability we have to form a language and understand it, we are expressing ideas and putting a fingerprint if you will, in each other's minds and changing the mindscape of another person just slightly. Neither one of us will be the same person after this conversation."

Sango still looked doubtful. "Maybe…"

"Sango…." She wondered how hearing her name could make her face feel warm. She pulled her gaze from the window and looked at him. He opened his mouth to speak, but he closed it at the last second. "Are you done your drink?" he asked instead. "I can walk you home."

"I… I think I would like that, Miroku."

-

Kagome was surrounded by darkness. She didn't mind it at all. The darkness was good. She could hide in the darkness, hide the forbidden spells she was using behind her mother's back, hide from schoolwork, hide from the people who made fun of her, who shot bubble gum in her hair, who dumped water and coke in her knapsack…

The darkness was inviting, and warm. She sighed, relaxing in the comfort of being suspended in nothingness and being blissfully alone. But then she found that she couldn't breathe in deeply. The darkness was wrapping around her, and had substance. She struggled against it, but it wrapped around her, keeping her from moving. It cut her arm and caused bruises as she tried to pull herself away from it, but there was nowhere she could run. The darkness from everywhere. It laced into her hair and pulled her neck back sharply, making her cry out a little in pain. She could feel scratches on her scalp, leaving blood there, and a great weight of darkness sat on her stomach, pinning her and making it hard to breathe

It swirled around her, moving and rising up like some giant snake uncoiling and looking down at the prey it held in a tightening death grip. Kagome struggled to get in so much of a fraction of air, but her lungs couldn't find any. And then the coiled snake struck and she felt fangs dive into her neck, drawing blood from her painfully. Her blood felt like it was on fire…

And her eyes snapped open. For a moment, all she could feel was pain, and it took her a moment for the deeper part of her mind to realize that she was on her back, her head lifted off of the cold ceramic ground by a clawed hand. She was on a floor. She was on the floor of her shop. And there was someone drinking blood from her. She could feel the pounding of her heart in her ears. And the person drinking from her had silver hair.

'Inuyasha?' she wondered. The pain made her mouth fall open. She tried to breathe, tried to gulp down the air as if it were the purest water in the world, but she couldn't seem to find the room to expand her lungs. The vampire was literally crushing her to him in his attempt to feed. Her ribs ached. She wondered why it hurt so much; it hadn't hurt before, and then she realized it.

Sesshomaru. Not Inuyasha. It was Sesshomaru.

Her heart missed a beat.

The sound chilled her to the bone as she gasped with pain. She reached out, wrapping her arms around him and digging her nails into his back as she lifted herself further off the ground, trying to fight back. But she was already too weak. Kagome tried to summon fire, the easiest spell she had ever mastered, and all she got was a puff of smoke. Tears came to her eyes. Her jaw dropped, and she tried gasping again, but the air just wouldn't come.

Her heart beat slowed again.

'He's taking too much,' she realized. 'He's killing me! Inuyasha! Anybody… help…' She thought that she had been prepared, but she wasn't. Not to go like this. No one was ready to go like this.

Her fingers shook with the pain. Her heart missed another beat. She could still hear the sound echoing in her own body, and it was growing steadily weaker. Her veins felt like they were on fire. Her fingertips were turning blue. That was a fact she didn't know. When someone was changed into a vampire, their fingertips turned blue. He was taking out so much blood that her veins were collapsing in on themselves. Her heart beat slowed again. She could feel blood running down her neck, and it was scratchy. Sesshomaru growled and the sound echoed into her. She screamed in pain, closing her eyes to the silver mist that coated her world, but she didn't utter a sound.

When he couldn't get anymore blood out, he dropped her. She landed on the floor with a heavy thud, like a child's discarded toy landing on the ground. Sesshomaru still straddled her, and he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to dab at his mouth and clean off her blood. His pale face was full of color from overfeeding, and his eyes were a little glazed over.

"I haven't had the blood of a witch in a long time," he said thoughtfully, carefully placing the handkerchief back away. He leaned back over her, looking so much like Inuyasha that her dazed brain found it hard to tell them apart. Her heart was barely beating now. She could feel it struggling to keep pumping, to not cave in on itself…

"Now, Kagome, I've taken enough from you so that if you don't have vampire blood within the next five minutes, your will die. Well, actually, I give it about four minutes until your heart gives out, and then you have about five minutes, I believe, until your brain dies from lack of oxygen, but since your heart won't have anything to pump, even if someone comes before your brain dies, you're still not going to live. There's only one way left for you to live, and since you've awoken, I'm going to give you a choice."

She wondered why he was telling her all of this. If he was going to kill her, he should just shut up and let her die in peace. And if he was going to change her into a vampire, shouldn't he shut up and give her his blood? And then she realized that there was a faint trace of a smile on his lips. The corners just curled up slightly. He was enjoying this, enjoying watching her die and knowing that his blood or the blood of his children was the only thing strong enough to fight death at this point.

"You can either die, or you can choose to live, Kagome. I know that you're slightly scared of Inuyasha. Who isn't? He is a little crazy, but I suppose that's what happens when you are raised by two vampires."

'I'm not going to listen to him. Stop listening to him, Kagome. You've seen into Inuyasha's mind. Do you want to have to fight a monster every time you feed, to live off of human blood? He's tempting you. Don't give into him!'

"But you would finally be as strong as Inuyasha. You wouldn't have anything left to fear from him at all, because you would be on the same level as him. And you would be closer with Miroku. I'm sure Inuyasha has told you about him. He can do magic, like you. You two could learn spells from each other."

'And my best friend would have to vow to kill me. I don't want it. I don't want this. Go away! Just shut up and let me die!'

"The choice is yours, Kagome. You can choose death…"

'_All_ you're giving me is death, you bastard!' Tears rolled down her cheeks as she lay curled in a ball.

"Or you can choose life…" he finished, bringing his wrist to his throat and slicing it with his long fangs. He held his wrist out in Kagome's direction.

She forgot everything she had said. She didn't want to learn with Miroku. She didn't want to be as strong as Inuyasha. She didn't care about making Sango her enemy. She didn't even want to live. She just wanted his blood. She could smell it. It smelled strong. She wanted the power. She wanted to become the beautiful, strong person she had briefly been when she had felt Inuyasha's blood in her body, running down her throat in burning waves, making her head spin from the sudden feelings of power.

With more energy left than she thought possibly, she bared her jaws and she seized his whole arm, pulling Sesshomaru down to her level. She refused to kneel there and drink from him compliantly, like some well-trained puppy. She was a hunter, she was a goddess, she was his equal now, and he would bow down to her.

He fell to his knee, struggling to keep his wrist up. It was amazing how much strength she had in her still. He let out a little laugh. God, this was perfect. He was going to have another child. The blood ran from around the seal of her mouth, dropping to the tiled floor. It looked black, it was so dark. And she was going to be beautiful and terrible. When Inuyasha saw her, he wasn't going to know what to think.

Kagome gulped down the blood. It was hundred, a thousand times better than Inuyasha's blood. It was sweet and strong and incredibly warm, and it quenched her thirst. It wasn't the thirst of her stomach or her throat, but of her veins. As she drank, she felt her body filling with blood again, energizing every part of her, bringing her back from that edge of death. It snapped and crackled in her body. Her body began to shake with pleasure as she drank. More. She wanted more.

"That's enough, Kagome," Sesshomaru said, stroking her hair and pulling his arm away.

Except she wouldn't have it. She wasn't full yet. She wasn't done yet.

Kagome wanted it all. He was trying to pull away. She snarled and bit him, feeling the blood rush into her mouth faster, and he let out a sound of pain. She saw the hand coming at her, so how gracefully it moved, but she didn't care. Then it struck her, and she didn't feel anything anymore.

Sesshomaru pulled his arm back. Her teeth had formed a new hole, ripping his skin. The tender wound dripped with his blood, but he was healing even as he watched. She was a feisty little thing, a natural hunter.

God, Inuyasha was going to ballistic when he saw what Sesshomaru had done to his precious little witch. She might even be a better hunter than Inuyasha was.

He laughed, and he couldn't stop.

-

The radio turned off. Kohaku heard the music stop from his vantage point in the hallway. He returned to Rin's bedroom to find her fanning out the smell from the hot plate she had been using under her pot, which had served as a cauldron. She smiled at him, and once again, Kohaku had the feeling of being dazzled just by her presence. However, this smile was a little less vibrant than he ones he was used to seeing. She looked tired and pale.

"Thank you again for being my lookout, Kohaku," she said, pouring some of the broth into a thermos. She handed it to him. "Please, give this to your sister. Tell her to drink it all. She knows what it is and what it's for."

He looked ready to ask questions, but she smiled and shook her head. Kohaku shut his mouth. Knowing the messes his sister got into some of the time, he didn't really want to know. Besides, he'd pester his sister for information. Somehow, because of the bond they shared, he somehow imagined that it would be easier to get information from her.

"I'm sorry that I'm not going to walk you to the front door. I'm a little tired, you see. I think I'm going to take a nap." She was swaying on her feet. Kohaku carefully put down the thermos and then reached for her. He held her gently, and found that she was already asleep.

Kohaku scooped her up and sat her on the bed. She was cuddling up to him like a kitten, and he really didn't want to leave. Her shampoo smelled nice, and her hair was just a bit damp still. He reached down and pulled off her slippers before he drew back the blankets on her bed and placed her on the mattress. He pulled the covers over her, tucking her in tightly. She refused to let go of his shirt. Looking around, he found a stuffed bear and slipped it between them.

"Aun," she sighed, hugging the teddy bear and releasing Kohaku.

He sat there, watching her sleep and holding her teddy bear to her. He felt a little funny. He didn't really like feeling funny, so he cleaned up her magic stuff so that her dad wouldn't catch on that she had been using magic in her room. Before he left, he kissed her goodbye, and she continued sleeping peacefully.

"Sweet dreams, Rin."

-To be continued


	24. Death in the Night

AN: I apologize for this being a little late. I wanted to get it posted on Thursday before I went home for a weekend, but as I failed, I am posting as soon as I got home… (Ignore the bad grammar, please!) I'm even posting before I unpacked! I apologize even more so for the cliffhanger.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Kouga is coming back in this chapter! Yay! (_throws confetti around)_ FYI, seeing as how you like him so much, I went back and I tried to see what else I could put in to expand on his character a little… sadly, it only comes into play in the epilogue, but he is around a good deal for these chapter and the next! I would also like to apologize for my last response to you. Apparently I came off as sounded harsh, and I guarantee you that it was not my intent to sound that way.

Aamalie: I would have loved to eavesdrop in on any of their conversations!

Lily Thorne: I loved your review! You have no idea how much I laughed, and the "shit a brick" saying as now been incorporated into my vocabulary! You get to see the "shit a brick" response in this chapter!

Stripe: Just the fact that you took a moment to review makes me feel fuzzy warm inside. Thank you very much.

Outspoken question from Chadrific: Did anyone else think that Kohaku and Rin were going to have a sleepover last chapter? (Myself, I don't see it… he's too sweet and stuff! And if he did sleepover, he would have crashed on the couch!)

Starzki: (_blinks)_ Aw, crap, see, now you made me want to start writing a prequel… but then, I wouldn't be able to have a Sango and Miroku-ness in there, because… wow. You know, by grammar has apparently just flat out skipped town today… sighs

Ninalee-chan: I don't know. Lol I was kind of thinking of Ghandi having roaming hands myself, but I couldn't make Ghandi into a lecher. I just wanted someone/something funny in there, and so I thought: 'Sango hits people… mainly Miroku… who is the person most unlike Miroku? I'll have her hit him…'

Anyway, thank you all for the wonderful reviews! We're getting very near the end now. Sadly. I apologize for the cliffhanger, again. For all those of you already reaching for projectiles now that you know I have a cliffhanger… um…. (_hides behind a care bear_)

**Chapter Twenty-Four: **

**Death in the Night**

Wednesday, October 3rd, 9 am.

Sango awoke late the next morning. She felt suddenly very eager to go outside and see the world, and pass the time until she could find Miroku and talk with him again. She had liked last night's talk. There were so many other things she wanted to hear from him, to ask him. She wanted to hear about all the stories from his past, learn more about him…

'I'm being stupid. All that's ahead of us is death. But if there was life ahead of us… it would be amazing and miraculous…'

She gathered her towel and her bathrobe and opened the door, when she was suddenly pounced upon by Kohaku, who shoved a thermos in her face. She took it and looked at it as if she didn't know what it was. "What is it?"

"It's a thermos."

Rolling her eyes, the remnants of her good mood slid away. "I can see that it's a thermos." He handed it over to her and she unscrewed it, giving it a sniff. It smelled like shit. She made a face, disgusted by the idea of drinking whatever was in the thermos. "I meant what's in here?"

"Rin made it. She said to give it to you and that you'd know what to do with it."

Sango grimaced. "I have to drink this shit?" He nodded and Sango plugged her nose. She reminded herself that this spell—whatever it was—would be able to help her defeat Sesshomaru. It would be worth a bit of a bad aftertaste. So long as she _trusted_ Miroku, and that the spell really would kill Sesshomaru and not do something sinister, like turning her into something harmless and easily squashed.

'Do I really trust Miroku that much?' she wondered, swirling the liquid in the thermos. She took a deep breath. 'I've got to be crazy. I'm trusting a vampire, here.' She lifted the thermos and drank it all as quickly as she could. When she was done, she shuddered and gave it back to Kohaku. "God! It tasted like crap! I'm just glad that I don't know what's in there…."

Walking into her bedroom, Sango grabbed a coke from the hiding spot under her bed and cracked it open. Taking a deep sip, she felt her body thank her. She heard he door click behind her. Kohaku had followed her into her room and had shut the door. Sango froze, her back turned to the door. She lowered the can from her lips, still licking them to clean away the taste of the horrible brew. She heard his feet shift on the carpet as he tried to relax into a less aggressive stance. She heard him clear his throat.

She turned enough to see him from the corner of his eye. She didn't want to meet his full gaze. Not yet. She knew what was going to happen. It had happened before: with parents, with teachers, with other siblings she had known, but not with her twin. Kohaku could read her like a book. She couldn't lie to him, not Kohaku. But at the same time…

"Go ahead and ask it, Kohaku." She smiled, running the tips of her fingers around the ridge of her drink. "I know that you want to, so you might as well go ahead and ask."

He was quiet a moment, and then he took a deep breath. "Witches are real. Kagome's a witch, and so is Rin. Magic is real. And you sneak out every night after dark." He blinked his brown eyes, looking like a child who was given a puzzle too hard for them to understand, and having the answer slowly dawn on them. "Do you sneak out because you're a witch?"

"No. I can't do any magic. I can, however, read auras, and some other stuff."

Relieved that he didn't ask about the 'other stuff', he continued, now looking suspicious. "If you are a witch, Sango, you can tell me. I'm not like Kuranosuke. I'm not going to blow my stack because you're different, or think you're a freak. I don't mind witchcraft at all. In fact, I kind of want to learn more about it."

"That's wonderful, Kohaku," she said cheerfully, honestly impressed and excited for him. She put down her coke and reached for him, pulling him down and sitting beside him on the bed. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned back on the wall of her room. "You're going to love it. I know you will. It's all about balance and rules… but I'm not a witch, Kohaku."

"Then what are you, Sango?" he cried, breaking free of her grasp and looking at her. "Why do you go out and not come back? Where do you go when you go out? Where did you learn to fight? How come you always act so much older than me? You're only fifteen minutes older, Sango! If there's a problem you have, then I can help!" She had already slipped past him and was on her way to the door. "Sango!"

His cry made her turn around, and she looked at him with honest regret. "I'm sorry, Kohaku. I want to tell you everything, I really do, but… I like you this way more. If I show you what I do, if you learn what's out there, it will change you. Like it's changed me, Kohaku. You are perfect the way you are now, Kohaku. I love you like this, Mom loves you like this, you've made yourself a girlfriend by being the person you are right now."

"_Sango!_"

She shook her head, refusing to answer. She turned to leave her bedroom, and then she felt the urge to look back at her brother again. He was crying. He was sitting there on her bed, and he was crying. And then she felt that her cheeks were itchy, and she realized that she was crying too. The bond between them had been stretched as thin as it could become. He was frustrated and worried, and she suddenly realized that this might be the last time she ever saw her twin. Sango didn't want to leave him like this.

"Come here," she said, holding her arms out for him. He rushed to her burying his face in her hair and held her as she cried and told him repeatedly that she was sorry for burdening him with worry for her sake. "Promise me, Kohaku, promise me that you'll take care of Mom."

"I will, Sango! I will! Now stop acting like you're never going to see me again or something!" He tried to laugh it out but it came out as a sob. Sango held him tighter, and refused to let go.

-

She had just finished getting dressed when the phone rang. No one else seemed to be picking it up, so Sango stopped toweling her long hair and grabbed the phone. She cursed when she dropped the blow dryer on her foot and then groaned. 'Lovely way to start off a phone conversation, Sango.'

However, the person on the other end snickered a little. "That sounded painful," she heard Mrs. Higurashi say. Sango felt suddenly even more ashamed. At the very best, it could have been some nameless telemarketer, but _no_. It had to be someone she knew. "Are you okay, Sango, dear?"

'Good old Mrs. H,' she thought, letting out her captured breath. Kagome, like her mother, seemed to have this innate ability to withstand all the forces around them and remain this cheerful, compassionate person. Sango adored Mrs. Higurashi. "I'm fine, thank you. I just dropped a dryer on my foot. But I think that both my toe and my hair dryer will be okay. I don't think Mom's home right now, but…"

"Oh, don't worry Sango. I had actually phoned up to talk to you. Kagome worked late at the shop last night and she didn't come home. I wondered if maybe she had stayed over there or if you had heard from her lately."

Something passed between the two women on the phone line. Sango could hear it hanging in the air. 'Inuyasha.' Her mother knew and she did nothing? Sango gritted her teeth and somehow managed to refrain from saying anything rude about the vampire that had stolen Kagome's heart. Mrs. Higurashi _would_ be caring and open-minded enough to let her daughter date a vampire.

"Do you want me to go and see if I can find her?" Sango asked. She knew exactly where too look. She had known the area of town that Miroku lived in for a long time now. She was begging for Mrs. H to say yes. Not only would it give Sango a chance to get out of the house during the day, it also meant that she would be able to see Miroku again. She experienced a tiny thrill at that idea.

"No," Mrs. Higurashi said, much to Sango's disappointment. "Kagome's a good girl. She doesn't get into trouble, and she's smart enough to get her out of it. She'll come home eventually. Besides, you and Kouga will go out no matter what I say. He asked me that same question, you know. Kagome's lucky to have friends like you too. Well, I best be off the phone, then. I don't want the line busy if Kagome calls, and I think Kouga will be showing up soon to drag you out looking for Kagome. Be careful, Sango."

"I will, Mrs. H. I will. Have a good day."

No sooner had she hung up the phone than the front doorbell rang. "Sango!" she heard Kouga call her. She smiled wryly. If only Mrs. Higurashi had that much insight into Kagome's life.

-

They looked all day. Even with Sango and her senses, even starting from the scene of the crime, they couldn't find anything. Sango was furious with herself. Her friend might be in danger, and she couldn't find them. 'If I hadn't started feeling like shit halfway through the day,' she growled, 'I could have done better. I could have done a lot better! I could have found her!'

The day was getting dark and Sango wasn't ready to give up just yet. She was sure that she could find Kagome. Beside her, Kouga shivered a little, looking at the eerie shadows cast by the angular, distorted buildings of the port. "You know," he said, "this place always gives me the creeps. It's quiet, and kind of makes me think of Lewis Carol. I think this he's the kind of thing he'd dream up if he had Lego back then."

Something about his comment made Kagome snap awake. She looked up at the sky and realized that it was dusk. She had been so consumed by the idea of finding Kagome she had neglected to watch the time. When she realized how late it was, her stomach gave a rumble of protest. They hadn't stopped for a real lunch, just gone into Kagome's favorite cafe and bought a muffin—which they shared—while they asked if anyone there had seen her.

"Why don't you go home, Kouga? I can take care of this myself. I'll stay out for an hour or two longer and then I'll retire too. If I haven't found her by tomorrow, we'll go out again."

He opened his mouth to protest and then he remembered what she did after night fell. She wasn't going to be looking for Kagome, was she? She was going to look for… for _them_. Sango could pin point the exact moment when he thought of the word 'vampire' because a shiver passed through his body. He paled, fiddling with his glasses as he tried to come up with some form of thank you to give to her. Kouga really didn't like being out after dark. The only reason why he went out during the day, he often thought, was because he knew he was safe.

"I'll, ah, see you tomorrow then?" he asked politely, his eyes already scanning the shadows and corners of the streets for movement.

She patted him on the shoulder. "Yes, you'll see me tomorrow. Now get going, Kouga. Maybe if you make it home soon, you'll be able to get some dinner and find it still warm." They smiled at each other and he took off. Sango watched him go, sighing a little. She really did like Kouga. He was talkative, and friendly, and rather witty… it was such a shame that some part of him had been completely decimated from learning that vampires were real, and how that part of him might never recover from having his safe world shattered.

That was why she couldn't tell Kohaku. She didn't want the same thing happening to her brother as well. Maybe it was foolish for her to think that way. If—_when_, she corrected—she died, she knew her brother would go out and try and find why she had died. He always wanted to know _why_. She smiled a little, thinking of his infectious curiosity.

She'd protect him for as long as she could, though.

Sango lifted her head and closed her eyes. All her senses scanned across the area, her third eye, her sense of smell, the subtle feeling of her skin that could detect power… and it was easy to notice. Yes, it was very easy to pick out Miroku's home from all the other buildings in the area. It was filled with magic, with power, with his scent, and his mental signature.

Sango walked right up to his door and rang the bell.

-

Inuyasha was awoken from his nightmare by a doorbell. He could hardly be put into a bad mood by this development. It had been a nightmare, after all. The knocking continued as he got out of bed and grabbed a pair of pants, slipping them on. His silver hair and ears melted away as he walked to the door. 'Better meet them looking human,' he figured, 'just in case it isn't Sesshomaru.'

He really hoped it wasn't Sesshomaru. Inuyasha didn't want to see the man who had made him a vampire for several years, maybe even centuries. He couldn't believe what Sesshomaru had done to that girl, Kikyo! Nor could he believe that the older vampire had made Inuyasha watch, just to get the message across.

Inuyasha had done nothing to stop it. He had done nothing to help Kikyo from the pain she was experiencing, he didn't make Sesshomaru stop her, he didn't fight Sesshomaru… he had sat there, and had watched everything because he was afraid of what Sesshomaru would do to him if he discovered that Inuyasha had never been able to rid himself of small pieces of humanity.

Pity.

Compassion.

Love.

He had felt bad for Kikyo, and had _wanted_ to help her. He had been in her shoes, and he was proud that she was fighting it, that she had won against the vampire trying to be made within her body… but he wished he could have helped. He wished he could have done something.

Wrinkling his nose at the scent of death still lingering in his room, he hurried to the front door, opening it before he looked to see who it was. Brown hair. Tall. Slender. Brown eyes. "Sango! Shit!" He let out a tiny cry and he fell over two chairs as he scrambled to get away from the door.

Sango entered without being asked. She crossed her arms and stood in the kitchen of their loft, looking tall and proud… as well as slightly amused, hurt, and disgusted. She was tired of vampires acting like that around her when all she wanted was to talk. Maybe that was why she liked talking with Miroku. He talked to her like she was a person rather than some humanoid "bogey man" meant to scare young vampires into behaving. But it was more than amusing watching Inuyasha freak out.

"You're still alive, are you?"

Inuaysha took it as threat. Thinking she wanted a fight, he untangled himself from the chairs and the floor, and put up his fists. His human face melted away, his eyes and ears returning, his hair becoming silver again. He couldn't deal with the Slayer showing up on his doorstep unexpectedly, but he could deal with her wanting to fight him. Inuyasha would love a rumble first thing in the evening. "Were you thinking of changing that, Slayer?"

"Yes," she answered with a gin that reminded Inuyasha of his brother. "But not tonight, puppy-boy. I came to bother Miroku. I don't suppose that you happened to see Kagome at any time, did you? She's gone missing. Is she here?"

"No," Inuyasha said, his fists lowering as he looked concerned. He thought as he put the chairs back up around the kitchen table. "I haven't seen her since the night before last. I know that she was going to work a spell. Maybe she needed to go someplace really secluded to work her magic so she wouldn't be disturbed?"

"Maybe," Sango said considerately, not wanting to dismiss his idea all together. She suddenly stiffened when a hand landed on her derriere, rubbing the curve of her back pocket. She let a sound of warning before she suddenly spun around, hand raised to slap the ex-monk. "Miroku, you lecher!"

However, his hand didn't leave her. It actually slid into her pocket, and so when she spun around she found his arm wrapped around her, her hand against his cheek. Sango looked surprised, but she didn't move her hand. She didn't know what to do with it.

"Ah, Sango," he said, lifting his other hand to cover hers. "I heard Inuyasha say your name. I was hoping that it was really you and not some mistake. You have no idea how happy I am to find that you've discovered my hiding place, and much sooner than I had expected. I should stop underestimating you, Sango…"

"Yes," she coughed, trying to pull back her hand, "well…"

They stared at each other, and suddenly they both became aware that Inuyasha was staring at them both suspiciously, his puppy ears pulled down and his teeth biting his bottom lip. Sango felt herself start to blush, and even Miroku began to feel a bit uncomfortable. They retracted their hands from each other's bodies. He spread his arm out for her, gesturing to his half-open bedroom door.

"Shall we take this talk someplace private?" Inuyasha let out a little growl, which both of them ignored. Sango nodded and took his arm. Miroku was almost across the threshold of his bedroom before Inuyasha's telepathy made him pause.

_You're taking the fucking Slayer into your bedroom for a cozy little chat? Are you kidding me? We need to move, or she needs to die! She knows where our den is! How do you know she won't show up tomorrow morning and set fire to the place?_

Miroku smiled at his sibling, slowly shutting the door. His smile was one Sango would have recognized and found frighteningly familiar. It was not a very nice smile at all. _Brother_, he told Inuyasha, _by the time I get through with her, she won't want to leave._

He shut the door.

Looking at it dejectedly, Inuyasha moved into his own room and finished getting dressed. He needed to go out and hunt anyway.

-

Kagome woke up and felt hungry. It was worse than anything she had experienced before. She'd woken up hungry before, sometimes because she'd skipped a meal to study, or maybe when she had been little she'd been sent to bed without supper for being bad, but that was nothing compared to the actually _pain_ she was feeling now. Kagome looked down at her own arm and thought wildly: 'If I have too, I'll eat my own arm. That's what I'll do.'

That's just how hungry she was. Painfully hungry, hungry to the point where no action was too drastic so long as it resulted in the pain and the hunger going away.

She looked around, and found that she recognized the room she was in, though she didn't know how or why she was in a bedroom not her own. She had to fight through the pain in her stomach which was slowly spreading to her whole body, but she could remember the last time she had seen the bedroom she was now in. It was the room of one of the fanciest hotels in town. In fact, it was the only good hotel in town, period. It was also the place where all of the graduation parties were held. The last time she had seen one of the rooms of the hotel had been in grade nine, after she and Kouga graduated. They'd gotten a room in the hotel (it was tradition for the hotel to give them a discount if all the kids decided to get rooms in the hotel, that way the parents would know exactly where their kids were on graduation night and that they weren't secretly drinking or anything) and had stayed up all night watching old movies.

The curtains were French green, the headboards padded with the same pattern. All the sheets were crisp, clean and white. The pillows were fluffy, and the air smelled like the free shampoo bottles they had. It was all very familiar, but what was not familiar was the man sitting in the chair, a newspaper held in his elegant hands. His silver hair was still slightly damp from his shower, and the air was still muggy. He was clad in a terry cloth towel. Just a towel. He was sensuous, and beautiful, and poised…

And he was a vile killer that Kagome wanted to see skewered and buried in the deepest hole available.

'And I drank his blood,' she remembered, feeling suddenly very ill.

"I wouldn't be sick, if I were you," he said dryly, casually turning the page in his newspaper. "Your body is very weak right now, and being ill would only be detrimental. You are turning into a vampire, Kagome. The pain will only become worse and worse. You will see anything, anything you know is edible, and you will try to consume it. I have seen men rip apart wild animals in order to satiate their hunger, but they ended up dying in the end because they ate raw meat rather than drinking blood as they were supposed to. Give into your instincts, Kagome, that's all I have to say. Human blood is the strongest, and so that is why your instincts tell you that you need human blood. Now, go. Don't come back until you have made your kill. Inuyasha may even be here waiting for you when you are done."

She felt as if something inside of her snapped when he told her to get out. She wanted to go out. She needed to move. She needed to keep her blood pumping. That lessened the pain a little bit. The cool part of her mind, the part that had always longed to use those archaic spells and to play god with peoples lives took control, the part that longed to play with real power, the part that longed to be with Inuyasha and walk the same path as him, the part that wanted immortality, the part that was ruthless, and selfish, and embittered from being rejected one too many times…

It had complete control over her.

Kagome raced from the hotel, streaking over the ground on her bare feet, looking for an ideal target. She needed human blood, and she would have it. Then she skidded to a stop, the small rocks on the sidewalk cutting the bottoms of her tender feet. She was acting like an animal, like a predator, but her body was not yet accustomed to running on gravel or long runs. Her throat was burning from the cold air rubbing her lungs raw, but it was insignificant next to the hunger she felt. Her breath turned into fog as she breathed out before sniffing the breeze. A scent she knew. Strong. Alone.

Perfect.

Kouga!

-

The boy pulled his jacket closer as he tried to run home. Darkness had fallen and Kouga felt a small sense of panic. The only thing that overpowered the fear of what would happen to him now that the creatures of the night had risen to power, was what might happen to Kagome. His ponytail slapped the collar of his jacket with every step that he took. Kouga knew that he had to trust Sango. Sango was the Slayer, and Kagome was intelligent and responsible. She'd be just fine.

The wind picked up suddenly, stray leaves striking against his face, cold and slightly damp. Tiny rain drops began to fall on the ground. He stopped, looking around him suspiciously. He was in the middle of a park. The rusty hinges of the swings creaked in high, lonely notes as the wind blew. Kouga made a sudden discovery that empty playgrounds in the dark were very creepy. He shivered with a cold deeper than the chill in the air that made his fingers and nose pink.

Something was wrong. His eyes scanned the surrounding area, but he couldn't see anything. His teeth began to chatter. He needed to keep moving; moving created warmth, and he still had quite a bit of time before he got home. He needed to get to Sango's house and get his bike, and then he could bike home… but something was wrong! What was it? What was wrong?

His back stiffened when he realized what it was. He was being hunted.

The trees behind him shook. Kouga spun around, ready to fight or to run from whatever it was that had been hunting him. He put down his fists when he saw it was Kagome. He was filled with a sudden sense of relief, and of pity… and then of confusion. Something was still wrong.

His gaze started at her feet. They were bare, and yet they didn't look cold. They were scratched. Her pants were tattered from running, and there were brown drops on them. He could see through the tatters to see that the branches and brambles had scratched her skin too. Thin red lines crossed her ankles. Her shirt too, was in bad condition. The pouring rain was making the light cotton material see through, and her shirt too was ripped and torn in places. Her soft lips were trembling, and tears mixed with the falling rain drops. Her face was pale. Her hair was un-brushed and unwashed. It hung down in wet clumps to frame her face, lifeless.

As for her eyes… they always were a brilliant shade of blue, and Kouga had always felt himself being pulled in and captivated by them. Yet now, he found himself sympathizing for her, wanting to take her into his arms and keep her warm and protect her from the swiftly falling rain. The wind brushed by, and the swings creaked loudly again. Kagome whimpered with pain, and Kouga felt himself bring pulled in by her eyes, longing to help her.

Kouga reached out to help her. Kagome struggled to step forward, her eyes pleading and pulling him in further and further. He could no longer feel the rain on his body, or hear the slide creaking. He just wanted to hold her, to be with her.

Her breath was just a whisper. "Kouga…"

"Kagome," he stammered how her name. It sounded like a sigh, but it was painful to get out. "What's wrong?"

"I hurt, Kouga," she moaned, coming closer to him. Her fingers were nearly touching his as their arms outstretched, trying to reach each other. "It hurts so much, Kouga. But you can help me…."

He swallowed hard, lost in a sea of blue. "I will do anything I can to help, Kagome!"

Her hand suddenly touched his, and wrapped around him. She was strong. She pulled him right off his feet, her mouth opening and he was able to peel himself away from the ocean he had been lost in a moment ago to notice that she had some very long, white teeth. And then it struck.

-

"Your room hasn't changed much," Sango commented, looking around. She sat in the chair at the desk and began flipping through the old book that was laid out. The room hadn't changed since the last time she had seen it, back in California over forty years ago. Since she and Miroku had been sharing dreams it was hard to tell, now that she saw his bedroom again, whose mind the bedroom had been taken from. Was it from hers because she had seen it as Clara, or was Miroku the author of the four poster bed?

"Well, I like the feeling of familiarity it provides," he said casually. He wasn't looking at her. In fact, he barely seemed to be paying attention to her. But he was painfully aware of her. He was aware of everything about her. Her scent followed him everywhere, the sound of her beating heart, the sound of the pages as she turned them… Miroku found it hard to breathe when they were close. He could smell the sweetness of her blood already. It made his mouth water.

Sango was very quiet for a long time. She spun around in the chair to look at him. "I feel like this axe is hanging over our heads, Miroku. I feel like I'm going to lose everything soon: my friends, my family, my life… you." She could see him blink from surprise, his long lashes lowered as he silently agreed with her. "You've felt it too."

He had felt it too, a feeling of restlessness in the night as the stars held their breath. Something big was going to happen. Miroku could feel it, and he damned her for being able to read him and tell that he knew it!

"You know it as well as I, Miroku," she continued, getting out of the chair. They wouldn't look at each other, and the more she spoke the more the passion, the intelligence and persuasion of Sango's voice ebbed away until she sounded hollow. "No matter what you say to me in dreams or how eloquently or passionately you may say it, you know as well as I do that all we have in front of us is death. Death is what both of us do. It's unavoidable. That's why I'm here."

He spun around, mad, defensive. "Why? You want to fight?" He reached out to her, his black eyes snapping with uncontrollable fury. His teeth were already sharper, his grip on her arm as he grabbed her almost able to bruise her. "Are you planning on just bringing out a steak and doing me in right here, right now? I'm ready, Slayer! Just bring it on!"

"I want to help you pack."

He stared at her. He couldn't see her face. Her hair, out of her usual ponytail, hung around her face, her head lowered. Her voice was still hollow, void of any hint as to her real emotion. Miroku felt in shock. "Wha… what?"

"I want to help you pack," she repeated, slower this time.

Miroku slowly moved his hand, and brought a finger under her chin, trying to make her look up. She resisted, but not a lot, and not for very long. She wasn't going to hide from Miroku. That would be rude, and if he really bothered to look, to use the telepathy or the gift of the third eye, he could know what she was feeling. Miroku was surprised to see that that she looked… frightened for him. Not for her, not because she was scared of what he might be able to do. She was frightened _for him_.

He felt hollow, weak, when he saw that there wears tears hiding behind the shields of her eyes. Even now, her gaze was cool and level, impassive and challenging despite the way she had evaded looking him square on.

The strength began to come back to her voice, though it wavered. "I look at you, and I see me. I mean, I see you, but…" Sango took a deep breath, trying to keep her eyes from watering. "I see me too. You do understand me. You treat me like I'm a real person, even you are my enemy. And you _are_ my enemy, Miroku, no matter how close we become. That's why eventually, it will come down to a fight between me and you, and we will fight and one of us will die, if not both of us. I don't want that. I don't want to… I don't want to live knowing that there's nobody in the world who knows me or understands me like you do. My God, even my _twin_ doesn't understand me the way you do!"

Tears were coming to her soft brown eyes, but her voice and stance were aggressive. She shook her long hair over her shoulder narrowing her eyes as she raised her voice. "I don't want to lose you!"

Neither of them knew who moved first, just that after she said it, he was agreeing whole heartedly and holding her as tightly as he could as she kissed his lips, his cheek, his chin, his nose…

And Miroku was promising that he'd never leave her again.

-

Kouga found himself being pulled ahead by Kagome, and then something ran into him, shattering him from the ocean that had surrounded his world and breaking the grip they had on each other. His whole hand throbbed from Kagome's grip. The ground rushed up to hit him as he tumbled backwards. He shook dead leaves and wet grass from his soggy body as he looked up.

A man stood between him and Kagome. Kagome had not changed her expression. She still looked scared, vulnerable… but slightly happy now. The stranger had long black hair and wore a red t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He could have been entirely human, but Kouga, by now, head learned better than to trust appearances. The man was a vampire, of that he was certain. And although he couldn't see the face, there was _something_ about him that he recognized.

Ranma. The man from the hospital that day after Kuranosuke had beaten Kagome. The man who had been holding her hand. The man that Kagome had been gazing at dreamily when she thought that Kouga wasn't looking, because it would have been rude to look at someone in fondness when someone who liked you was sitting right next to you. Inuyasha.

Inuyasha.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, his deep voice sharp. She looked happier at hearing his voice. Inuyasha's brown eyes began to fade into gold. He stared at her, horrified, as he took in what she was. A half-vampire. If she killed tonight, she would be a vampire, she would be like _him_… 'Oh, oh _god_…'

Kagome laughed suddenly, and launched herself at Inuyasha, throwing her arms around his neck and hanging off of him. Her laughter was deceptively childish, and she playfully butted his chin, waiting for Inuyasha to hold her back. "Inuyasha!" She didn't seem to notice that Inuyasha didn't move, that he didn't respond in the slightest. "I missed you so much! But look! You're here, and I'm here, and Kouga's here! This is absolutely perfect, Inuyasha!"

She slid down off of him, shaking her wet hair as she smiled up at him dizzyingly. Her teeth were bright white in the darkness, her slender fangs following the curve of her lip. She didn't look like she was scared or in pain anymore. She looked positively radiant. "Inuyasha," she said coyly, snickering slightly. "Why aren't you hugging me back?"

He didn't answer. He just stared down at her, his expression sent into this glare that kept trying to soften into some expression which Inuyasha was fighting to contain. He raised his hand, placing it against her cheek. She still felt warm… but soon that warmth would become nothing but an illusion meant for hiding in a world of humans. It wouldn't be real anymore. "Who did this to you?"

Kouga was picking himself up from the grass, his mouth hanging open as he watched the display between them.

Kagome tried to move away, but his other hand wrapped around her arm. She couldn't move anywhere. She looked hurt, her mouth starting to shake and her blue eyes wide. "Why do you say it like that, Inuyasha? How can you say that? You make it sound like this is a bad thing. This isn't a bad thing, Inuyasha! Sesshomaru changed me yesterday. I want to become like you. I want to stay young and pretty and become stronger and stronger and, most importantly, to stay by your side for ever and ever."

She smiled and placed her head on his chest. His body was comfortable. His clawed fingers kept stroking her cheek. "I already have my form picked out. I want to have a body like Sango's, and ears like yours, and claws that retract like a kitten's, and maybe I'll make my eyes go silver when I hunt, that way we'll be complete opposites! You'll have silver hair, I'll have black; you'll have gold eyes, I'll have…."

"Kagome," he said shortly, pressing a finger to her lips to get her to stop. He lifted her head to look at him. "Kagome, what did you do?" She was surprised to see that he looked ready to cry.

"Don't cry, Inuyasha," she said, brightening her smile. "I'm happy too, but don't you see how perfect this is? I need to make a kill tonight, all on my own, and Kouga's right there. I can kill Kouga, and drink all his blood. And you're right here to use your blood to save him afterwards. It will be perfect. I'll have my best friend with me forever, and I'll have a father-figure in Seshsomaru, and my lover in you." Kagome laughed, the perfect sound becoming foreign to their ears. It didn't sound like Kagome at all, this selfish titter that belonged to some drama queen, not their down-to-Earth Kagome. "It's perfect! It's wonderful, Inuyasha…"

Kouga was standing up now, staring at her like he didn't know her. It barely even looked like Kagome… the eyes were hungry, hungrier than anything he had ever seen before, the sharp teeth, even the way she stood… she stood like Inuyasha did, smiled like Kuranosuke had before he had done something malicious. It wasn't Kagome at all. "Kagome…."

Inuyasha could barely stand to look at her. She was becoming a vampire, exactly what he didn't want to happen to her. He gripped her shoulders, his voice feral and hissing. "You don't really want this Kagome, do you? I mean… everything about you will be different! You're going to live off of human blood, you're going to be the enemy of Sango, you're going to have to watch your mother die…."

"So?" Kagome retaliated, struggling to get away. "It's not like I haven't watched a family member die before! Sesshomaru made certain of that already! What's the matter, Inuyasha?" Finding herself unable to escape, she set up a different tactics. "Don't you want me like this? Are you afraid I might become stronger than you or something?"

'No,' he thought, trying to push her away as she nuzzled his neck. 'I'm afraid that you're going to become _exactly _like me. I can't… I can't let you, Kagome.'

Inside Kagome, something seemed to be retaliating. She felt like she was fractured into a hundred of tiny voices. Some wanted to kiss Inuyasha, to yell at him, others were focused on Kouga, others were crying for blood and one, in particular, was aware this everything here was wrong and pleading for her visions to be correct. She didn't want to be a vampire, she didn't want to drink blood. For just one second, that voice seized control of her, and said one word.

She looked up at Inuyasha. "_Please_." Then it faded away, and the part of her that was mad with hunger focused her blue eyes on Kouga. "Fine, Inuyasha. Don't help me. I will kill him and take him to Sesshomaru, and I'll make him turn Kouga for me."

She turned on Inuyasha and tried to lunge for Kouga. The human boy was frightened. She moved so quickly, her fingers curving as if she already had nails, and letting out a hiss as she tried to spring on him. He was too shocked to move… nor did he have the time to move. She already moved like… like one of _them_.

Inuyasha, however, was still older and faster. "No!" He grabbed her, pulling her down from her launch and holding her against him. "I'm not going to let you kill him!"

"But I want him! I'm hungry, Inuyasha! Kouga… I just need your blood, that's it!" He looked at her eyes, and he began feeling himself getting pulled in…. Kouga looked away, and she cursed. "Kouga! Kouga! Help me! Inuyasha, you bastard, let me go! I need to feed! I need to kill! I need to be strong! Let me go!"

"Kagome…" Inuyasha's voice was gentle. He had heard the real Kagome, the girl that he loved speaking for a moment. She stopped trying to claw her way away from him and she looked up at him with her innocent blue eyes, the bloodlust draining away as she stared at him. His face was smooth, his gold eyes gentle and loving… more so than he had ever looked before.

"I… Inuyasha?"

"I'll help you, Kagome," he promised her, stroking her hair. Though it was damp, it still felt glorious to him. He brushed stray leaves from her hair almost absentmindedly, and she relaxed against him. Kouga, on the other hand, stiffened apprehensively. He knew he should run, but something wasn't quite right yet. He needed to stay, he felt he needed to stay, for some reason.

Kagome swallowed, and the part of her mind that had held fast to the laws of Wicca for years, through the killing of her brother, through temptation, through being picked on and lonely, swam to the surface of her mind. Tears began to run down her face. "I'm still human, Inuyasha," she said, trying to smile proudly. It wavered, and she looked simply helpless and scared.

He nodded. "I know you are, Kagome. You're still perfect, and alive, and innocent, and that's always how you'll be to me. That's how everyone loved you, Kagome. Kouga, your family, me…" He swallowed, finding it hard. Kagome's eyes urged him on as he held her.

Slowly, he brought his hands to her cheeks and drew her close for one last kiss. Their mouths met in a soft kiss, her scent surrounding him and reminding him that for this one last moment, she was completely his. He gripped her tighter, his kiss increasing in urgency and passion and Kagome sighed with pleasure, sounding light headed. "I love you, Kagome Higurashi," he told her, his lips so close to hers that they brushed her mouth.

And then he snapped her neck, as the rain changed, and snowflakes began to fall.

-To Be Continued

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	25. Kagome's Sunrise

AN: Only a few more essays to go! Isn't it sad to think that in one year of university, you will do an average of around 15 essays? Not that I mean to discourage people from going to university if that's what you need/want to do… it's an experience that cannot be equaled. But then, isn't every experience?

Third last chapter, another cliffhanger, and I'm changing my name so none of you can find me because this one is just plain _evil_! Consider yourself warned!

Stripe: Of course she went crazy! She was dying and oxygen was slowly being cut off from parts of her body. _Smiles_

Siwi: It's kind of already done and part of the plot. Sorry.

Fireblade: Eh, not vampires, but she wasn't a vampire until she made her first kill. Remember the flashbacks and Sesshy's speech about becoming a vampire? If she doesn't kill, she doesn't make the transition. She wasn't like Kikyo, who had only had a little bit of a her blood taken and had only taken a little bit of vampire blood. Kagome had all her human blood taken away. She was running on Sesshy's blood, and she needs to kill to get energy, otherwise her body wastes away. She's like the Energizer battery on his last leg of the trip. He can keep going and going and going, but only if he still has juice in his battery. (Did that make sense?)

Ninalee-chan: I left it hanging because this way, it's up to you. Did they have sex? Did they stay up all night talking? It all depends of your own interpretation of this AU Sango. Because she has had so many lifetimes, was she ready to have sex, or did her hatred of vampires get in the way and she didn't sleep with him because she hates what he is? O.o It's all up to you… and did I mention I have a purple, flying unicorn? It could save me…

iLOVEcheese: What can I say? I'm one for the weird…

lifeORdeath: O.o We'll see how you fair when your blood vessels are collapsing in on yourself and you're deranged because your brain is slowly being deprived of oxygen! (I kid, I kid…)

Anyway, all in all: _thank you so much_ for the great reviews, everyone! They totally made last chapter worth it!

Enjoy!

**Chapter Twenty-five: **

**Kagome's Sunrise **

Wednesday, October 3rd, 10:15 pm

The snow fell in fluffy white flakes. They fell almost straight down, floating back and forth, and they melted as soon as they hit the ground, but it was still snow. Kouga could barely believe that it was snowing. He concentrated on it as much as he could, trying to find a way to deal with what he had just seen. Kagome had been killed; no, _murdered_!

He couldn't control it. The anger lashed out, and with an angry yell, he ran at the man that was holding Kagome's body. He body checked Inuyasha, and Kagome's body dropped do the ground, her eyes closed, as if in peaceful sleep. Kouga's hands were fists, and Inuyasha wouldn't look at him. He didn't even wait for a break in his attack, he just kept advancing on Inuyasha, striking at him, but Inuyasha kept dodging.

"You bastard!" the human boy yelled, unbridled. "You fucking bastard! You killed her! You fucking killed her! Why! Why did you have to do that! You killed my best friend!"

Then Inuyasha looked up, and Kouga stopped, his fist still in mid-air. Inuyasha was crying. Like Kouga's anger, the sadness the vampire felt was uncontrolled. He let the tears show because he wanted to—needed to—feel them. He couldn't stop himself… he felt so alone, so misunderstood and so… vile, for killing someone as wonderful as Kagome.

Kouga remembered seeing guys cry before. He'd seen it a lot before. But there was _something _about seeing it in a boy only a few years older than him, who was really a few centuries old, someone who was strong, and a monster... there was something about seeing someone like that cry that really hit Kouga; it hit him harder than an actual punch ever could.

Inuyasha was crying so hard that his shoulders were shaking, that he was actually sobbing… Kouga had never seen anybody cry like that before, except once. After Souta had died, he had held Kagome in his arms for almost two hours as she cried into his chest. She had cried like that.

Inuyasha was crying because someone he loved had died. Kouga knew that eventually he would cry like that too, but he needed to get through the anger first.

"I… I had to," the vampire stammered.

"Bullshit!" Kouga snapped, the words ripping right from his throat.

"She was trying to kill you, you asshole!"

"Then you should have let her kill me, you bastard!" There was a sudden silence and his anger seemed to start to cave in on itself. He took a deep breath, feeling the tears of frustration starting to come, but his anger was not yet spent. "You should have let Kagome bite me and drink my blood and I would have been happy because she would have been okay! I don't care what happens to me; I never did, I just loved her!"

"You're a fucking idiot, Kouga!" Inuyasha spat, gesturing to Kagome's body. "She was becoming a fucking vampire! She wouldn't have been the girl that you… I… that _we_ loved! She would have become like me! You don't get it, do you! She would have been a fucking murderer, Kouga! She would have suffered, and hated herself deep down because she had to drink human blood to live, and she would have watched people she loved die, and her best friend would hate her, and she would have laughed as people suffered and cowered in front of her! She wouldn't have been Kagome, she would have been someone completely different and she would have hated herself!

"Don't be stupid, Kouga! I loved her too! You know that! Do you think that I would have hurt her? Do you think I would have done that if it hadn't been the right thing to do? God… Just… Jesus fucking Christ, Kouga! Do you want to see Kagome as a vampire, do you want to see her drinking human blood and torturing people?"

"No… no…."

He suddenly grabbed Kouga and spun him around, pointing to Kagome's body. "She wasn't turned into a vampire. She was human, and she was killed before the vampire blood that was keeping sustained her destroyed her body from the inside out. Do you now what a body looks like if it didn't change?" His voice was close. Kouga's arm was hurting from the bruising grip that Inuyasha had on him. But the anger was slowly fading away. Anger and pain like they were feeling could never last very long. It just faded away in waves until nothingness was left, this emotional void that left people feeling drained.

"It looks like a mummy. It shrivels up. Now that will never happen to her. She won't ever be perverted by our curse. She'll never hate herself, she'll never kill anything, she'll never be in pain again, she'll never have to fight Sango or learn to think that human beings are a weak species that's good for nothing but to be our playthings! That's why I did it, I did it because I loved her and I didn't want to see her become something evil, something heartless!"

Kouga just continued to look at the ground, unable to bring himself to look at the Body. He couldn't even bring himself to call it Kagome's body. It was just the Body; it didn't belong to anybody. Denial. He had seen it happen, he had heard her neck snap, but he couldn't accept yet that it was _her _body.

Inuyasha gave Kouga a little shake, yelling. "Damn it, boy, I said look at her!"

Kouga managed to bring himself to look at her. Her hair fanned out behind her. Her cheeks and lips were still bright. Her eyes were closed peacefully. She looked like she was sleeping. Her clothes and her long hair hid any wounds from him. Her body was so cold that the falling snowflakes clung to her long lashes and her dark hair, the same way he had seen them do at Christmastime years ago. She looked as if she could just open her eyes at any moment and say something Kagome-like: 'Did I worry you?', 'I had the most amazing dream', 'Did I fall asleep again?', 'Hey, Kouga, want my Passion Flakie?'.

He felt his own tears start coming, and arms wrapped around him. He couldn't believe that he was hugging and crying with a vampire. But they had much in common. They had both lost someone they had loved, they both felt bad for it, they had both seen the same things in Kagome and were filled with pain and needed someone to help comfort them and be comforted.

Kouga wrapped his arms around Inuyasha, burying his face in silver hair, and sobbed.

* * *

Sesshomaru felt a connection snap. He paused as he sat by the hotplate, stirring the pot. He carefully added in three drops of Kagome's blood, and the brew began to glow. "So, she didn't make it. I wonder if she killed herself," he thought out loud.

A moment later he looked at the blood and closed the container, placing it in the back of the fridge, in case witch's blood should ever prove useful again. He stirred the cauldron carefully, the red glow making his hair look like it was awash with blood. "No matter. I have what I need to make us stronger. Once my children can walk in the sunlight, the humans will never be safe again. They will never have a haven."

* * *

Thursday, October 4th, 6:59 am

Kouga and Inuyasha cried for a long time. The sky was actually starting to lighten as they sat back, looking at Kagome's body and trying to figure out what to do. The human turned to the vampire, his blue eyes clear and logical. For a moment, he had a handle on the world. He knew, however, that in an hour, maybe two, maybe even a whole day, it would hit him again and he would start all over. He would stitch his new wound closed again and again until it scarred, and left something permanent on him.

"They're going to find her eventually. What should we do?"

"I dunno," Inuyasha said, sounding very childish. "Maybe we shouldn't let them find her. Maybe we should just bury her. We're two strong guys; it wouldn't take us very long."

"But what about Mrs. H?" Kouga asked, playing devil's advocate. "We can't just let her think that Kagome's run away. She should have a bit of closure in her life, don't you think?"

Mrs. Higurashi was pretty cool. Inuyasha nodded, agreeing. "So we can't leave her here because we don't want some little kid to find her, we don't want to move her in case you accidentally leave evidence and get suspected of foul play, we can't bury her… what should we do?"

Kouga shook his head. He was sitting on the swing, looking at Kagome. His fingers were numb from holding the metal rings of the swing, and his whole body felt numb. His whole body had felt numb for a long time, but he didn't care. He had come to the conclusion that Inuyasha had been right. He couldn't have let Kagome become a vampire, but he still didn't trust Inuyasha enough to leave her alone with him. Part of him still prayed the vampire was wrong and that Kagome would blink her eyes and sit up, reverting back into the human witch they both loved with all their hearts. "I don't know either…"

"I need to go soon," Inuyasha growled, starting to feel weak. "The sun will be rising in fifteen minutes. I need to be indoors before then." He looked back at her. "I don't want to leave her yet."

"Neither do I. I…" Kouga stopped and shuddered when he saw the dog-ears disappear, the hair starting to darken. "Man, will you quit going back and forth between looking human and looking like some kind of half demon? Watching your ears come and go is creepy and kind of gross."

"What? I'm not turning into a human," he said, looking at Kouga. Kouga wasn't as clear as he had been a moment before. Inuyasha's eyesight was so good that he could see the weaves in Kouga's clothes, but now he couldn't. He could normally hear the blood, the beating of a human heart, even from meters away, now he heard eerie silence. He could normally feel each falling snowflake as it landed on his skin. Now he could feel nothing, nothing except for this terrible cold that was sinking into his limbs. He sniffled. His nose was cold. Inuyasha couldn't remember the last time that he had felt a cold nose.

He looked down at his hands. The tips of his fingers were pink. The nails had gone, and he just had normal, human fingernails. The hair that he could see was black. He felt like he couldn't smell or hear or see anything.

"Wha… what?" He was so shocked that he actually felt fear, real fear. The kind of fear that made you want to curl up and wish that it was all some bad dream because it was overwhelming, because it was inexplicable and it made you suddenly so aware of how powerless you really were. That was the kind of fear that Inuyasha was now experiencing.

He looked at Kagome's body, and her words rang clearly in his mind. _"Inuyasha, if it truly is that bad, then for all the things you have done, I will place a curse on you to ensure that everything you have ever done will come back to you and you will know what it will feel like to be completely and utterly vulnerable once again. The curse will take place the moment you kill me."_ She had done it. She had worked a curse for him to make him feel weak and vulnerable.

She'd found a way to make him human.

* * *

In the end, the decision Kouga and Inuyasha made was swift. Inuyasha called the police on his cell phone and told them where Kagome would be. Kagome, Kouga had told Inuyasha long ago, would no doubt be blamed for Kuranosuke's death, as there was no evidence pointing towards anyone else, and because of Mr. Onigumo's influence in the trial. Inuyasha only agreed, as Kikyo would have no doubt put her foot down and not allowed the file to close until she had been able to clear the names of everyone she knew was innocent. Unfortunately, Kikyo wasn't with them to stop it anymore. Mr. Onigumo once again, it seemed, had his run of the town.

Inuyasha decided to turn himself in, as the killer of Kagome, Kikyo, and Kuranosuke. Even if they couldn't find enough evidence to really convict him, they had his confession, and Kagome's name would be cleared, as would Sango and Kouga's.

Kouga, of course, thought that he was insane. He was starting to get mad again. Anger was the only thing keeping him awake. "Kagome died to make you a human and you're going to throw it away to spend the rest of your life rotting in jail?"

He looked sad, and Kouga regretted saying anything. "I'm going to spend my life trying to make amends for the things I've done in my life. What could be better than sacrificing my life to clear the name of the woman I love and make sure that no harm will come to her friends because of the things I and my family have done? I don't want to lead a pointless life like I had been leading before. At least by making a sacrifice, my life will have a meaning. I'll be living for something that way."

Kouga didn't press the matter. If this was the decision that Inuyasha wanted to make, then he couldn't change Inuyasha's mind. The thing was, in some odd way, he understood what Inuyasha meant. Without another word, he went to Sango's house and stole his bike from the backyard and finished going home.

Inuyasha, on the other hand, walked down the street. His ears may have been human, but he could still hear the sirens approaching, as they came to find Kagome's body. The sun was starting to rise as he walked, his fingers in his pockets as he tried to warm them up. He felt physically and mentally exhausted, he was so cold his body ached, but he lifted his head to great the rising dawn.

The sky was beautiful. The snow was still falling, and the sun slowly rose past the tree line, Inuyasha was almost blinded by it. No wonder he couldn't see the sunrise when he was a vampire. It would have blinded him!

Behind the sun the sky shimmered. It was a beautiful red sky, the horizon beneath it glowing orange. The clouds in the sky turned deep red, slowly lightening to vivid pink as he watched. The snow they were releasing were caught in the rays of the rising sun and turned to gold. They looked like particles of an exploded star falling to the ground. Inuyasha felt tears stream down his face as he looked at it. A sunrise. Not a movie sunrise, or a tv sunrise, a real one, that had colors even vibrant to his human eyes and that cast heat on his body, warming him. And Kagome had given it to him. It was Kagome's sunrise.

He spread his arms wide, his legs rooted on the firm ground, and he greeted the sun with all his body, yearning to experience what sunlight would feel on skin, wanting to let it dry him off and greet the sunrise again tomorrow, wrapped in a warm blanket and with a coffee or hot chocolate in his hands. He closed his eyes partway, basking in the warmth, and his even with his eyes half closed, the colors shone through. He could feel warmth all the way out to his outstretched fingertips.

'I wish you were here, Kagome. You should see it. It's perfectly gorgeous. I have never seen anything like it in all my life.'

He finished watching the sunrise, and then he moved on, still trying to warm his hands. His brown eyes were filled with sorrow, his expression lost and lonely as he looked around at the strange day-world, as the colors brightened and as the people came out of their shelters into the world. He couldn't stop smiling stupidly; his whole face hurt from smiling. He didn't know what to do first. He had dreamed of a hundred things that he wanted to do in if he could go out in daylight, but he had wanted to them all with Kagome; picnics, going to the beach, things like that.

He touched his heart as he walked along, shaking his black hair out behind him to get it out of the way. 'Kagome is still with me,' he thought, fondly remembering her and feeling his heart start to shatter again. He still couldn't stop smiling. 'So let's do it. Let's go to the beach or have a picnic… you'll stick around me for one day, won't you Kagome?'

Inuyasha had given himself one day, one day until he turned himself in, one day to go out and experience all he could. With a sunrise like that, it looked as if it was going to be a beautiful day.

* * *

Sango's eyes opened when the sun had finished rising. She looked at the clock and swore under her breath. It was her first day back at school and she was already late! She tried to push herself up and an arm stopped her. She was half sitting up, and she looked over her shoulder. Miroku was curled up beside her. His eyes were closed, his dark hair tousled. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, her long hair fanning out on his chest and hiding his skin from her. One of his legs was over hers, the others under them, one arm over her stomach and the other holding his pillow under his head.

Her face shifted, and she lay back down next to him, carefully turning so that she could look at him. Her back was cold now that she was no longer held against his chest as they slept. She smiled, raising a hand and brushing his cheek gently. Miroku stirred and she stopped. Sango's hand covered his and she tried to remove his hand from her body so that she could escape.

"Are you really going to leave without saying goodbye?"

She looked back down at Miroku. He still looked like he was asleep, but after a moment one of his eyes opened. He smiled up at her, stretching like a large jaguar. He somehow managed to do this without ever letting go of her. "Do you have to go?"

"My family will be missing me," she said, frowning. "I have school to go to as well. And Kagome was missing still. I should have been out there looking for her rather than being here with you."

"I'm going to miss you if you go," he admitted, looking suddenly very young and lonely. He paused and lifted his head, laying his cheek in his palm as he looked at her. "You can't blame yourself for spending the night, Sango. You're human, like everyone else." She gave him a pointed look which reminded him that his statement wasn't quite true and that he did not suffer from a mortal state as she did. He blinked, his eyes not leaving hers as she slipped out of bed and retrieved her clothes from the floor. "Do you regret staying here last night?"

"Yes. I… I, no, I don't," she finally replied, sighing. Sango finished buckling her khakis and sat down on the bed again, only half dressed. "I don't regret staying here or the things I did with you, I just feel guilty. I feel guilty that I enjoyed staying the night with you instead of being out looking for Kagome."

He sat up in bed, the covers curling around his stomach and hiding his lower body from her. His body _was_ beautiful. He reached out and he stroked her long hair gently, his graceful fingers subtly avoiding the knots and adeptly undoing the ones he did come across. Sango's body relaxed. She always felt so relaxed whenever he was around! She managed to hold back a shiver as he leaned forwards, his face just barely in a field of vision.

"Did you… do you… was it… you know…."

She turned to look at him and she laughed. Miroku felt a stab of pain, and then he let it go. She was laughing at him, but who cared! She was laughing, that glorious, rarely heard sound that could bring a man to his knees, that was what was important. She had only laughed, really laughed twice, and both times had been around him. He was the only one who was allowed to hear that laugh, to feel the way it brought warmth to his dead body and made his smile turn real, void of any bitterness or maliciousness that had come from seven hundred years of pain. Sango, on the other hand, was wondering how he could be so nervous and shy after seven hundred years of being well-known as a playboy, a Casanova, a…

He looked hurt that she was still laughing, that she hadn't answered him. "Well," she began, "I was a little creeped out at the fact that you had to sleep naked, but I quite enjoyed the evening that we had together." She yawned. "Though I am a little tired. I'll break open the caffeine when I go home, though, and that should keep me awake enough to last me through the rest of school."

Miroku smiled. "Good." She looked at him suspiciously, and he seemed flustered. "I mean, it's good that you had fun, not that you're tired and stuff."

"And stuff?" she repeated, smiling down at him. Her arms disappeared into the large shirt she was wearing as she put her sports bra on. Miroku was still amazed the girls had the ability to get dressed without removing their clothes. "You certainly have a smaller vocabulary than normal in the morning, Miroku."

"Well, I'm tired too." He eyed her, his violet-grey eyes roaming her body up and down. The shirt she was wearing hid all of her curves. It was an unflattering color, making her look pale and sickly, and the cut did nothing to make her look like she was a strong female capable of killing dozens of vampires in a single night, but Miroku thought it looked gorgeous on her. After all, it was his shirt. "You should keep that," Miroku told her. "My clothes look good on you."

She blushed. He was entranced by it. She had never blushed for him before, not the same way she was doing now. "When can I see you again, Miroku?

"How about tonight?"

She nodded vigorously. Her brown eyes were warm, happy, and hopeful. Miroku had indeed succeeded. She was obsessed with him now. If he didn't know any better, he would have guessed that she was head over heels in love with him, but Sango had made her feelings for him clear in their discussion last night. They had stayed up till two am talking, talking about everything from the past to music to their favorite books… Sango had borrowed one of his shirts and had slept beside him after they had fallen asleep. Once again, their dreams were their own, though neither one of them had dreamed at all that night.

Sleeping beside each other, held and protected, safe and warmed by someone who was their equal, that was already enough of a dream come true.

During that discussion, somehow their feelings for each other had come up. Rather, Sango's feelings for him had come up. She didn't love him, she never would love him, and if she found him after she had finished her life as 'Sango' she would kill him without a second glance. But for this life, she would grant him leniency because of the kindness he had shown her.

It was enough to make Miroku feel like he was the happiest man on the face of the planet.

"I would love to see you tonight. Meet you at the front door just after dark? I have a feeling that I might need to sneak out again."

He placed his hands on her arms, pulling her down for a kiss goodbye. His smile was dreamy. "I can't wait, Sango."

* * *

Sango raced home. She stopped in the driveway. There was an extra car in the drive way. Sango had never been one for one for cars. They were loud, crowded, hot, polluted… running, now that was the way to go. There was something about feeling the wind in your face, about feeling your legs pump and your chest starting to burn from running, to run so fast you could have sprouted wings. That was how traveling was meant to feel. But, after a moment, she recognized the car. It was Mrs. Higurashi's.

'What's she doing here?' Sango wondered, entering through the front door. Sango knew that her mother wouldn't be fooled by Sango disappearing for a whole day. She figured she might as well go through the front door, and take her punishment head on. Sango took a deep breath. Somehow, she had never gotten over the yelling she was subjected to in life after life by parents who thought that yelling a long lecture at her might actually make her change.

However, in stead of a lecture, she was suddenly attacked by the arms of her mother. "Sango!" she cried, kissing her daughter's dark hair. "Oh, Sango! I was so worried! Where have you been? Why didn't you call? Are you okay? Young lady, don't you ever, _ever_ do that to my again! You had no idea how worried I was, and Kohaku had said that I should relax and that you were probably out with some man by the name of 'Miroku' and that you had met him by dancing with him at a bar and I became even _more_ worried… oh, young lady, you are so grounded again!"

Her world was tumbling around, thoughts whipping around in her head. 'I'm going to kill Kohaku for telling Mom about Miroku! I'm grounded _again_! That's not fair! Why is Mrs. H here? Why was Mom so worried? How come parents always say 'young lady' to me when they lecture me?'

She tried hard not to smile, but the effects of waking up next to Miroku had not subdued yet. She smiled, pushing her mother away and detangling herself from her mother's arms. "Mom," she asked, "what's the matter? Mom? Mom, are you crying?" Her smile disappeared. No child could keep smiling while their parents were crying.

Sango's mother sniffled and pulled out a handkerchief from the wad she had in her hand. She dabbed at her cheeks, trying her tears. Mothers weren't supposed to cry in front of their children. It made them feel suddenly so very helpless and unprotected. Sango just felt like shit. For once, she hadn't been the one to make her mother cry, which meant that someone else had. It was a little frightening to imagine someone having that much power over her mother… and it left her wondering who it had been. Her first though, was of Kohaku. Was Kohaku all right!

"Oh, honey, I guess you haven't heard yet…'

Over her mother's shoulder she spotted Mrs. Higurashi. Kagome's mother was pale and held a Kleenex in her hand. There were bags under her eyes, and her clothes were wrinkled. Normally Mrs. Higurashi had this maternal, well-kept air around her. She was always in best of spirits, always impeccably dressed, this perfect mother who had a business and managed to raise her children and keep house. Now she just looked beaten, defeated… it was disheartening, and Sango felt a second awareness strike her so hard her body actually hurt.

Kagome.

Something bad happened to Kagome.

"What is it? What happened to Kagome? She's okay, right? Did she get called in by the police? If she did," Sango said, rambling and unaware of the fact, "don't worry about it. Kouga and I both got called in for questioning. It'll take a long time, but they'll let her go eventually…."

Much to her surprise, Mrs. Higurashi let out a sob. She buried her face in the clean Kleenex and turned back into the kitchen. Sango's mother turned back to her daughter, and she knew that her mom was planning on following and comforting Mrs. Higurashi as quickly as possible. "Sango," she said gently, patting her daughter's back, "it's Kagome. The police found her this morning."

Sango got a very bad feeling, all of a sudden. Her wide eyes looked innocent, and her mother hated herself for having to tell her daughter about Kagome.

"She's dead, Sango."

Sango swallowed, and kissed her mother's cheek. She slowly walked upstairs, looking perfectly calm. Her mother worried and wondered about her a second before she hurried into the kitchen to comfort Kagome's mother. She would see to Sango later, or maybe Kohaku would. She knew her children did understand each other better than she could ever hope.

But Sango went upstairs and locked her door. She very calmly unlatched her trunk and took out a whetting stone. She lifted out her katana single handedly.

Inuyasha was going to die.

* * *

It had to be Inuyasha, of course, that was obvious to Sango. Kagome had always been telling her that Inuyasha was going to kill her one day, preparing her and Kouga for the day when she wouldn't be there, gracing the school with her wisdom and smiling despite the pain the ignorance of her fellow students caused her. Kagome had been strong. She had been a good witch. If she had made the prediction that Inuyasha had been going to kill her, Sango believed her.

Sango had vowed to kill Inuyasha. She had made a vow to kill all the vampires. The only thing that had been saving Inuyasha was Kagome. Now Kagome was gone, and Inuyasha was free game. Sango was going to punish Inuyasha for taking Kagome from Kouga, from her family. From Sango herself.

She began to carefully sharpen the edge of her sword. 'Inuyasha, you are going to pay.'

* * *

It was starting to get dark. Inuyasha was getting tired. All day he had enjoyed things he never could before. He had eaten and tasted human food. He'd had sushi. It had cost him a bundle, but he had never been able to eat and enjoy sushi in the same way before. It had been salty, and cold, but it had tasted good that way. It had an indescribable texture, and Inuyasha loved it. He hoped he would get to try sushi again. Maybe Miroku could send him some for Christmas!

He played on the beach. He had never played on the beach during the daylight before. He skipped stones on the ocean and collected seashells. He had ice cream. He tried three different flavors and got a head rush and thought he was going to die afterwards, but it was still wonderful. He snuck into a high school and sat in the back of some class. The teacher didn't even notice. He had never been in school before, and frankly, he could see why it was so horrible. The beach, however chilly it had been, had been much more interesting. It also been the prettiest shade he had ever seen. Grey. Plain, boring grey… but the only water he'd seen since he had become a vampire had been black. Water at night looked like runny tar. Even grey water was in improvement.

'I have lots of time to see blue water,' he thought to himself. He stopped and looked around. Subconsciously, he had begun to walk towards his house, the loft he shared with Miroku. He couldn't go home! Miroku would smell him and know that he was human. The loft sat on the corner, and he looked at it.

He couldn't go home…

* * *

Sango knelt on the roof. She had felt like Rambo—a female one—when she had left her house. She had her crossbow on her back, and her bolts in a package she had designed herself, strapped to her thigh. Her katana, sharpened to the point where her hair could be cleanly slice just by running along its edge, was stuck sideways into the belt of her jeans. She had a wooden dagger in one of her combat boots, a stake in the other one. Though her steel-toed boots were heavy, they were the best shoes to fight with, in her opinion. Her kicks had more power behind them, and it saved her toes from being stomped upon.

She fed the arrow into her crossbow. Sango had been waiting for Inuyasha to come out of the apartment, but there he was, in the street in his human form. He paused in the street, debating, and she took aim.

* * *

'Miroku's my brother,' he told himself. His human eyes didn't pick out on the shadowed form hunched on the edge of his roof, a crossbow in her arms. 'He won't hurt me if I turn there for the night. But what about Sesshomaru? Isn't that part of why I'm going to turn myself in? Because if he found out about me being human, he would turn me again and put Kagome's sacrifice to waste? I can't go in there. If he shows up… he'll just force me to drink blood again and I… I… I can't!'

He knew that if Sesshomaru drank his blood and offered him the chance to be a vampire again, he would take it. Deep down, he would refuse it, scream and beg and claw his own mind apart, but that damned instinct would take control. If the instinct to live forever, to be strong and the be the predator rather than the prey didn't take control, then the pain that came with his changing body would surely do him in. Kikyo had been one of a kind to deal with it.

'I can't do it,' he decided. It would be best if he disappeared. Then, when Sesshomaru found out that he was missing, Miroku would be able to tell the elder vampire that he didn't know anything.

But it was too late. He saw the door open. His eyesight was good enough to see that. Miroku stepped out, smiling and whistling. He almost always whistled when he smiled _that_ particular smile. Inuyasha grinned. Just because he was human didn't mean that he couldn't read his brother like a book. This particular smile was one Miroku wore after just having had great sex. Inuyasha wondered who he'd managed to score with. Wouldn't it be awesome if she managed to have sex with the Slayer? Miroku would have loved that! Inuyasha had seen her fight, he knew how nimble and dexterous she was.

He laughed a little, imagining exactly how stupidly large a smile Miroku would have if he actually managed to get with the Slayer!

Miroku saw him. Inuyasha couldn't see what his face looked like exactly, but he imagined that Miroku's smile vanished and he looked surprised. He wouldn't have expected to see Inuyasha outside, in his human form, standing between the lamplights of the dimly lit street, looking up at the apartment longingly. And then his ability to read auras would kick in. That's when the surprise would turn to shock, and to confusion. Inuyasha waved to Miroku, just a small wave of his hand.

He understood, after seeing the aura. He would be left wondering how, but he would understand, and maybe even be jealous that Inuyasha had had his dream fulfilled while Miroku was still left with his curse. But Miroku would be happy for him. Maybe Sesshomaru might send Miroku after him, thinking to silence him, but Miroku would never find him and kill him.

They loved each other too much. Inuyasha had abused the fact that he'd known Miroku would, and could, never kill him. Now his life hung on that fact.

He turned to leave, and heard a whizzing sound pass by him. An arrow landed on the brick wall beside him and broke. He scanned the rooftops, the doorways and the windows, wondering where the arrow had come from. Miroku was just as confused. He looked around for the source, but he couldn't see the attacker, nor could he feel her or smell her. Sango was out of sight above him, downwind from him, and in her stalking mode. She might have well have been a shadow.

* * *

'He… he doesn't see me?' she wondered. Sango pulled the patch of arrows of her legs, the Velcro ripping off. She put the crossbow down, wondering why Inuyasha hadn't challenged her yet. She jumped down from the roof in a clean jump, her boots loud as they landed on the ground. Besides that, she moved silently. Sango stared at him, her face so expressionless that it reminded the once-vampire male of Kikyo. Her brown eyes had been dead like too, void of anything save for anger.

"Sango!" She heard Miroku's voice. Quickly, she dove down and grabbed the dagger in her boots. She spun, and without looking, she threw it at Miroku. It caught his shoulder, pinning his leather jacket up against the wooden frame of the apartment. Miroku stared at it, shocked. It had buried itself all the way up to the hilt!

Sango glanced at him over her shoulder. "Stay out of this," she growled. He tried yelling at her, but she ignored him. She shrank down her whole world until it was just herself and Inuyasha.

She wordlessly drew her sword, holding it out with both hands. The Slayer and the human stared at each other, and eventually Sango broke the silence. "You killed Kagome," she accused. Her voice was crisp.

"I did," Inuyasha answered, his throat dry.

Sango straightened, sheathing her sword. She had changed her mind. He admitted it so casually! She'd fight Inuyasha hand to hand, beat reality into his tiny little brain. Besides, fighting with a katana against an unarmed opponent was dishonorable. Sango didn't want to start using dishonorable techniques when the whole point in fighting Inuyasha was to avenge Kagome's death.

"Fight me," Sango said, her eyes locked on him.

He shook his head, his black hair becoming invisible as the night sky completed itself. Sango wondered why he wasn't turning into a vampire, why he still pretended to be human. Even odder was the fact that there was a hint of fear in his eyes. Stranger that all of that, however, was the fact that he didn't want to fight her.

'Inuyasha… not want to fight?'

She advanced on him. "Damn it, Inuyasha, fight me!"

He tried to say something, but she was already moving. Her hands and feet were flying through the air. His body still knew what to do and it began to move of its own accord, and he began automatically blocking her punches and dodging her kicks. But he was slow. He was not used to the human body, and he couldn't match her speed. Her nails left long scratches, her arms leaving bruises that were tender to the touch even before the next punch came at him.

Inuyasha found himself a human fighting a vampire. Sesshomaru had said that she had copied their strength, their speed, and he hadn't been kidding! Inuyasha backed up again, nearly stumbling. His eyes darted down to the ground and then up to Sango. She was performing a spinning kick, and he couldn't help but analyze her form. She was perfect. Her leg was perfect, her balance unwavering, her muscles visible under her tight jeans as her leg extended, connecting with his chest… and he had never had the time to block.

He skidded along the ground, straight into some metal garbage his cans by the side of the road. They struck his head, and he winced in pain. The pebbles sliced open his shirt, adding long, thin bloody lines that decorated his cheeks and his arms. He cursed his human body. Had he still been a vampire, the insignificant scrapes would have already been healed over. Sango, however, was too mad to notice this fact. She was too mad to look at his aura and see that he was completely human. All she could think of was killing Inuyasha, killing her enemy, the way she had always lived: kill or be killed, and Sango refused to die until she sorted out her other affairs.

Like killing Sesshomaru. Like seeing Miroku one last time…

As he lay on the ground, the wind knocked from him, Sango was drawing her foot closer, reaching down as she balanced on one leg. She pulled her stake from her other boot and pounced on Inuyasha, driving the stake into his heart. "Die, Inuyasha!"

* * *

Miroku had managed to get the dagger out of the jacket. He felt the need for a weapon. He didn't want to go down there and fight with Sango while she was in that mood. He prayed that Inuyasha would be able to take care of himself. He flung his ruined jacket on the chair in his bedroom, grabbing one of the katanas from off of his wall. He had moved quickly. His steps would have been invisible to human eyes. But he had not been quick enough.

He opened the door, in time to see the Slayer jump on his brother. Her body hid what happened next, but he had seen the stake in her hand. Rowan. It was made from a strong wood. And after hunting the vampires for more years that Miroku cared to guess, he knew that she would never miss.

* * *

The stake drove into Inuyasha's chest. Sango felt her anger ebb away now that he was dead. Inuyasha was shriveling, he was losing all his energy and slowly turning into dust—no, he wasn't. Sango backed away quickly, covering her mouth with her hand.

Blood seeped around the rowan stake in his chest. It was red, though darker than what television and movies had made it out to be. It soaked into his shirt. She felt drops of it on her cheeks, stinging her. Sango looked at her hand and found that Inuyasha's blood was there too. She made a sound that sounded like a whimper of fear and disgust as she frantically tried to wipe the blood off on her khakis.

Inuyasha stared at his chest in shock. She had staked him… he was going to die. He was going to die without clearing Kagome's name, without getting to try all the other flavors of ice cream or seeing the ocean in the spring time or planting flowers or Christmas Day… and everything else he had ever dreamed about doing.

"She," he stammered. Blood trickled down from the corner of his mouth. It was warm. He swallowed the coppery blood, but it didn't help at all. "She was a vampire… I did it… to help. Kag… o…."

Sango stood over him, petrified. She felt lightheaded, like she was going to be sick. "He was human… he was human… dear God Almighty, I killed a human…"

And then she heard Miroku…

* * *

To Be Continued 


	26. The Lost Immortals

**The Blooded**

AN: One chapter to go… please keep in mind that if you kill me, or scare me away… I can't post the epilogue. And for anyone who thinks that the ending to this story doesn't make any sense, please go back and re-read it. I've been planning this ending for a long time.

Dark Slayer: …well… you certainly demonstrated the use of the word.

Siren: I think it's because that Inuyasha doesn't really know it was Sesshy. He thinks it was, but he isn't guaranteed. Plus, he had Kouga to take care of, and Kagome's body. But when he became human… yeah. Sesshy versus a human? It's like… a Mac truck versus a squirrel. You don't know what Sango and Miroku were doing. I wrote it so that it could be taken as either way. Did they have sex? Well, there was his question and she was wearing his shirt… or did they talk, which would explain why Sango was so uncomfortable when Miroku said he was going to be naked in bed with her… no one knows… not even me!

Fireblade: I am proud that I madder you speechless. _(smiles)_

Fantastical Queen: Actually, I am scared of killing people. It makes me cry, it makes other people cry… as the PoF, the last thing I should do is kill off anyone.

Starzki: Um… sorry about that (_hangs head in shame_). And as you are the first one to mention snuggle/cheer-up rights for Kouga, I'll give them to you.

General Duke: Your review had me worried there for a second. And… well… the worst people can do, I figure, besides hunting me down, is to flame me. And that will make me feel bad. And cry. And get depressed. But then I get reviews like yours where I get some kudos and it makes me feel better. Huh… I think I have frostbite… anyway! Back to the point… I promised a happy ending, so you'll just have to bear with me!

Stripe: Kohaku is safe. I couldn't kill him off. He's too cute.

Lily Thorne: Um… you know Hamlet? By the end of this chapter, I will be tied for bodies.

iLOVEcheese: Actually, you hit the nail on the head.

: See… it's like this. **OMG, for Pete's sake! If you're going to flame me, don't just give some vague description! Tell me what you have a problem with! Because A) chapter 25 is in no way a Buffy rip off, B) in the beginning I gave more than one disclaimer to everything I took from Buffy, so you were warned! And C) is it too hard to write an email address so that you can actually talk to me and tell me what you have a problem with? My God, if someone has a problem or a question, then YES, I WANT them to come and ASK me about it because I rarely do things on a whim. **

Sorry that I had to distract everyone with the bold font for that response. I'm back now to me old self…

Ninalee-chan: If you still have a copy of the two-page review, I'd love to see it. (_smiles_) And you raise a good question:

_Why Sango can't love Miroku:_

You see, Sango hates vampires. A lot. We've already determined it, I know. That's why she can't fall in love with Miroku. She cares a lot for him, she trusts him-maybe she really does even love him—but in the end, he's a vampire, and Sango refuses to fall in love with a vampire. If you go back and look at the story, all the times she's been able to get close to him and enjoyed his company have been when he's acting like a human: when he simply talks with her, when he doesn't use his powers, when he romances her, when he starts acting like some teenage boy rather than a centuries old vampire. Sango loves Miroku for who he is—the loving, comical, sensuous and intelligent man we all see in him—but hates him and fears him for what he is—a blood sucking vampire.

Which is part of what makes the following _two_ chapters so… happy.

**Chapter Twenty-Six: **

**The Lost Immortals**

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" Miroku's voice sounded frantic to Sango. She stood in front of Inuyasha's body, shaking but otherwise immobile, hoping that it was just some horrible dream and soon she would wake up from it.

Miroku ran past her, stopping and falling by Inuyasha's body. He reached out, his hands around Inuyasha's shoulders, but he could see that it was already too late. Inuyasha was already dead. His hung his head, his black hair falling into his eyes and hiding his expression from Sango. She vaguely thought she heard a sniffle as he pulled Inuyasha's body closer to him. The human man's blood seeped into the pale shirt Miroku wore. He leaned his head against Inuyasha's, wishing that he had been able to say goodbye, rather than just wave.

Eventually, hesat back up, his face still hiding from Sango, and he ran his hand down Inuyasha's face, closing the human's eyes. "Rest in peace, Inuyasha." He lifted his hands in a brief prayer, and Sango watched, still in shock.

"Oh God, God, what have I done?" she kept whispering to herself. Her body felt numb, but hot, and dirty. She wanted to scrub Inuyasha's blood off of her skin, and she would not be satisfied until her skin was pink, raw and new. She scrubbed her hands on her pants, trying to get it off. Another whimper of fear escaped her when the blood didn't want to come off her hands. She stopped moving, becoming as still as Inuyasha was, when she heard Miroku finish his prayer.

She watched as Miroku stood up, and a chill passed through her when she saw his visage. His eyebrows were drawn together and he glared at her fiercely. His lavender-grey eyes were suddenly pitch black, as dark as his hair. Streaks were just barely visible on his cheek, and his eyes still shimmered with tears. His pale skin was taught, his sensuous mouth set into a straight line and his vampire teeth just barely visible, so white that the contrast between his dark lips was painfully evident. His body moved with fluid grace, the body of someone trained to fight and who was good enough to not need to use it. He held up his katana, his eyes not moving from Sango. The blade was revealed. It was a real, authentic Japanese blade, made of folded steel. He threw the scabbard away, and it clattered as it rolled down the sidewalk.

Sango shook her head fervently. He advanced on her, his katana held in both hands, and she shook. She didn't want to fight Miroku. She was afraid of him, she was afraid of fighting him, she was afraid of knowing that his intellect and cheer had vanished from the world and she was the one who had taken it. For the first time in centuries upon centuries, she didn't want to fight a vampire. "Miroku, don't! Don't do this! It was an accident! I didn't know he was a human!"

"You killed my brother," he growled, his fangs looking even sharper as he spoke. He was a terrible figure as he approached Sango, but gorgeous. He looked like a wild animal, a predator, and there was nothing about him that let her recognize him. There were no similarities between this man before her with a sword in his hands and the man she had left that morning, jovial and relaxed as he lounged in bed.

"It was an accident!" she protested again. She was still backing up, and she knew she couldn't do it for very much longer. Eventually, if she couldn't convince him not to fight, she would have to duel him or flee. Sango gripped the hilt of her sword, getting ready to fight. She wasn't about to run from a battle, especially when it was vampire who could enter her house whenever he wanted.

Frankly, there wasn't anywheresafe where she could hide.

She smiled at him weakly. "I guess that this means our pact of non-violence towards each other is off, right?" He managed to smile grimly, and then he attacked.

Their blades struck each other, and sparks flew. Sango's muscles strained as she tried to keep her sword straight as they pressed each other, trying to make each other's swords buckle or their arms falter. Sango kicked Miroku away. He fell back, but he shook his head, his black eyes glittering as he straightened and came at her again.

This time he didn't test her strength in his strike, he tested her speed. His strike, to a normal human, would have been so fast the sword would have been a silver blur. Sango, however, saw it coming. She raised her sword and blocked it. His strike was filled with such force that when their weapons connected, the air seemed to chime with music. Miroku smiled grimly, pleased that this was going to be a fight that challenged him.

He fell back again, and Sango's eyes were locked on him, waiting for a hint that he was going to attack her. She watched his eyes, his mouth, his chest, his legs, all waiting for a sign. But when he did attack again, there was no warning. Miroku was good; he was very good. 'But he has to be,' Sango thought, 'because he fights vampires too. He kills them when they step out of line. He's been doing it almost his whole life. Maybe I can still reach him, still get him to stop this!'

He sliced at her neck, thinking that she was distracted. Sango ducked under his blade and wiped out her leg, catching his legs under his knees. He fell to the ground, his sword momentarily out of his hands. Still crouched, she shook her head, her ponytail swaying behind her. "Miroku! Stop this!"

His hand closed around the hilt of his weapon again. 'She's a fool,' he snarled. 'She should have taken my head while she could. I've seen her move. She was fast enough to have done it.'

He sliced upwards with it. The tip of his katana just barely struck her chest. She rolled back, one her hands covering the wound. It wasn't bad. Had more of his strike hit her, she would have been sliced open from navel to collar bone. Sango let out a little hiss of pain, standing up to meet him as he lunged again. She let her anger ebb away as they wore down each other's defenses.

Their strikes, once silver streaks, became blurs, and then they became visible strikes. They were blocking and striking with less intensity, their fighting spirits getting tired. This wasn't a fight for their lives that would keep them going for hours; it was revenge, and the need to fight was slowly wearing thin. Their breathing was labored, their limbs feeling tired.

Both of them had gotten good strikes in. Miroku was cut, but the wounds had healed over. All that was left to show that he had ever been hurt by her sword was drops and small rivers of blood that dotted his chest and arms. She had even gotten him in the heart at one point. It had caused immense pain, but he had been able to heal it. Steel wouldn't kill a second generation vampire, even if they had been stabbed through the heart. He had been hunched over in pain, and all she did was lean on the wall of a building, gasping to get her wind back and taking a moment to recover, holding her own wounds closed.

Her own wounds were fast at clotting, keeping her from bleeding to death, but she had nowhere near a vampire's ability to heal. She admitted that it would have been an ideal trait to copy and learn from their minds, but she had to pretend to be a normal human. She couldn't control healing powers. What would happen if she had healed herself in the flash of an eye at the age of two? She would have been put into some rubber room for observation for the rest of her life.

Miroku mentally yelled at her for not killing him, for not using that second or two advantage and saving herself. He was being irrational. This wasn't how the plan was supposed to work, and he didn't care. He had started the fight because he had been angry, furiously so, and he had wanted to kill her. Now he just looked back and saw all the opportunities she had had to kill him. She hadn't even made a move to kill him when the opportunity arose. It was frustrating. It made him want to yell and cry all over again.

Sango blocked his attack, swiftly moving over the sidewalks and the empty streets, the same square of land that they had been circling over for the past half an hour. 'Maybe I can reason with him' she thought again. He was putting up a good fight, and so was she. They were evenly matched. Sango wondered if maybe she could put an end to this rationally, maybe because they both respected the other so much as a fighter… "Miroku…"

"Shut up, Sango!" he snapped. His words hurt her more than his sword ever had, and the look of painful anger on his face didn't help. He looked as though he had been hurt by someone he trusted… and he had. "I'm doing this for revenge, the same way you killed my brother to avenge Kagome! It's not right, is it? Of course it's not! Revenge is never right! But you took Inuyasha from me, you took Kagome's gift from him!"

He gripped his sword with both hands, and he lunged at her. His sword was aimed right for her heart.

Sango didn't bother to see the strike. Her sword lowered, and tears made her eyes shut as she tried to hide them.

"I'm sorry, Miroku, _I'm sorry_!"

* * *

Her words had made him falter. The sword had swerved, and it had come up over her shoulder rather than her heart. Long strands of her hair floated by, sheered off by the tip of the katana. A droplet of blood was building up on the curve of her ear where his sword had sliced by. Her body was shaking, but not with fear or relief. Her shoulders were shaking with tears, her eyes closed. 

Miroku's expression faltered, falling to look shocked at her confession. It wasn't just her confession, it was that she looked and sounded like she meant it. Her voice had cracked and wavered, her katana shook. Then she lifted her head. Tears rolled over her blood-spattered cheeks, mingling and leaving red streaks on her face. Her bottom lip shook, and she bit it to keep from saying anything else. Her brown eyes were so open and filled with pain that just looking at them made Miroku's tears want to start falling again too. She looked sorry, and scared. Scared of him, and scared of herself.

Sango wanted to throw herself at Miroku and hold him, and be held by him. She needed it. She needed the comfort that was there only for her, that only she could claim and offer because of the way they understood each other, sometimes without words, and sometimes just by the emotion in those words, rather than by their meaning. 'I'm sorry' never should have worked in stopping Miroku, but it had, because of how she had said it, because she had trusted him and left herself open emotionally and physically to him, and he had been a gentleman. Despite his anger, he had been the person that she had begun to care for, and he had done everything in his power to keep from hurting her.

Her lashes lowered as she looked across at him. His pale skin was flushed with the heat of battle, his expression furious and savage, but quickly softening. He was breathing heavily. Sango felt her breath catch as she continued to cry, trying to keep from sobbing. All the pain she had been feeling since she had gone home and found out that Kagome was dead was overflowing in her heart, and she knew that she couldn't stop it.

Miroku lowered his weapon, the color of his eyes softening until they reached their normal hue of lavender-grey. His defenses had been breached, and he had lost his anger, leaving his mind suddenly vulnerable to how Sango was feeling. She had lost a friend, and then she had killed a human being. It didn't matter if Inuyasha had _been_ a vampire or not, he was mortal when she had killed him, and to think that his mortality which she had so quickly ended had been a gift from Kagome did not help either.

"Sango… Oh, Sango."

Moving forward, he dropped his sword and he took her in her arms. She buried her face in his neck, his scent, his words, his body and the mind that caressed her thoughts, comforting to her. She sniffled loudly, clinging to him tightly as her shoulders began to shake. "I'm so sorry, Miroku! I didn't mean to! It was an accident! I wish I could undo it! I wish I could give him back to you! I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! I wish I had never come here!"

"You don't mean that," he whispered fiercely, holding her tighter against him. Sango shook her head, and he kissed her dark hair. "No, love, you don't. If you had never come here, you never would have made friends, and you never would have met me."

Her back stiffened at the word 'love'. Was Miroku really implying what she thought he was?... Sango closed her eyes tightly. Vampires didn't love. But after watching Inuyasha and Kagome constantly working at protecting and _understanding_ each other, she felt her opinions about it shift a little. Maybe, just maybe, Miroku really did care for her, maybe even really love her. She opened her eyes, staring over his shoulder at the brick wall behind him. She didn't really notice it, she just stared at it, too busy enjoying the sensation of being close to him, of having Miroku comfort her.

Comforting… from a vampire! Sango's life was even more fucked up than it had been before.

His hands rubbed her back, entwining with her hair and making her body calm down. His scent pooled around her. Sango would never be able to forget how he smelled. He didn't smell like a vampire at all. His skin was wonderful. She pulled away a little, looking up at him. His face was worried, and he sought just as much comforting as she did. He looked very lonely, very young and childlike, and Sango wondered how he could look that way after so many centuries.

"You have this amazing ability," she said, forcing a smile and drying her cheeks with the back of her hand, "to live for years and not become jaded. How do you do it?"

He smiled, and tweaked her nose. "I guess it's a secret. And I'll tell you another secret, Sango." His eyes perked back up, his smile greeting her curious gaze as he leaned his head down. "I forgive you. I forgive you for everything you've ever done, and everything you ever will do. Because, Sango, somehow, as impossible as it seems, I fell…"

Then he stopped talking. His face changed again, drawn in an expression of pain. Sango felt a warmth trickle and squeeze between their bodies, and a sharp pain in her breast. Somehow, she was aware of what had happened without needing to see Sesshomaru on the roof, holding her crossbow in his hands and cursing about hitting Miroku instead of Sango. The whole world went silent.

She backed away slowly, her eyes roaming down to his chest. A fresh trail of blood wove it way down his pectoral muscle. The iron head of a wooden arrow was just barely visible through his skin, protruding slightly. They both stared down at it in shock, and Sesshomaru calmly stared, wondering what the outcome of this event would be.

He had come to see Miroku, discuss Kagome's death with him and see how Inuyasha was fairing. Sesshomaru knew, as all parents seemed to know, that his children were involved in something they shouldn't be. He had been disappointed to learn what it was. He had never been quite so shocked as he had been when he arrived and found that his handiwork had been undone and Inuyasha had somehow become a human. The dilemma, however, was easily solved as Sango killed Inuyasha, and then Miroku had to arrive on the scene.

Miroku, after getting over the fact that he had just been shot, smirked and drew the arrow further out of his own body, wrapping his hand around it. It was a wooden shaft, and sure enough it had struck his heart, but he was a vampire, and a strong one. It would be painful, maybe even long, but he could survive being struck by a wooden arrow. The arrow started to crack.

"No!" Sango cried, reaching forward. Her voice and face were panicked. "Miroku, no, don't!"

It was too late. The arrow cracked and he pulled out half of it. Only then did he see the tiny pieces of dust fall from the inside of the hollow wooden tube. Sango's hand touched him, wrapping around his as she pulled the arrow from his hand and flung it away. His visage changed again, his eyes widening and his mouth falling open. Miroku looked pale, and she slipped her arms around him, supporting him. His dark hair fell back from his forehead as he slowly slid to the ground as Sango tried to hold him.

The silent world couldn't hear the crossbow being put down. The silent world couldn't hear Miroku's breathing becoming raspy, his knees hit the sidewalk, or Sango's tears land on the ground beside him.

"Miroku… the arrow," she said quietly, her voice nearly inaudible. "It was filled with broken down shavings, with wood dust, so that if I missed a vampire heart, when they tried to take out the arrow, the wood would penetrate their blood stream and would kill them." She tried to smile. "But you're a second generation vampire. Sesshomaru's blood is strong in you. You can beat this. I know you can, Miroku."

"No," Miroku replied, his grey eyes sad. He reached up a hand, the fingers shaking badly, and he traced her cheek, cleaning away the last spots of blood from her face. "I can't. I haven't fed in two days, Sango. The wood is in my system. I've used up a lot of my power healing these wounds… this one will kill me, Sango. And if this doesn't, then Seshsomaru will."

She didn't ask why Sesshomaru would kill him. Miroku was glad. He didn't want to admit it now. He didn't want to explain it to her now. If he was lucky, if he was very lucky, he would get a chance to tell her everything some other time. But Sango didn't see things the same way. She shook her head, her ponytail whipping back and forth. Her tears ran down her face faster, her hold on him tightening as she tried to hold on to him, to give him some anchor to the real world.

"If you need blood, then do it! Take mine! Take it before this… this moment of insanity is past!" He did nothing, he just smiled at her patiently, and her anger broke free again. She was mad at Miroku, furious that it was her arrow that had killed him, and on some level, that she hadn't been the one to pull the trigger.

"You need the power you have left to fight him," he said, his eyes drifting to the rooftop, where Sesshomaru had vanished. He looked back at her. His face was already gaunt, and the color had drained from his eyes too. Now they were just plain, simply grey, but they sparkled as if he were in the prime of life. His eyes then drifted to his other side, where Inuyasha's body was still sprawled out. "Sango," he said quietly, praying that she would understand.

He thanked each and every star in the heavens shining down on them that night, that Buddha had not deserted him after being neglected for so many years. Sango looked at the human body, and she understood. Miroku had said that it had been Kagome's gift; but Kagome was dead and she could give him no gift. Unless her death had instigated the change within Inuyasha… She looked back at Miroku, her beautiful features filling with fear, but encasing it over in steel-fast resolution. She knew she would have only an hour left at most, if she were lucky. If she were unlucky, then he would draw it out, and make it as painful as possible.

Her heart pounded in her chest. She found it hard to breathe. "I understand."

"You can't kill him in this life, but he'll be mortal. And even if he does become a vampire again, he'll be weaker," Miroku managed to get out.

Sango nodded again, her brown hair slipping over her shoulders. "Then this will be the last chance I ever get to talk you," she said quietly. Her lips barely moved. Her eyes were lowered, her lashes hiding her real feelings from him. Miroku was too tired to try and pick them up with an aura-reading. He wanted to last a little bit longer, he _needed_ to last a little longer. But only one type of person used _that_ type of a voice…

"This will be the last time I ever talk with you… Miroku. I wish… I wish we could have had a happy ending, Miroku. I wish I could have given you more. You were right: you are perfect for me. You're the only one who ever understood me. You were my enemy but you were soft, and you showed me kindness and encouragement, once you had gotten it into your mind that you weren't going to kill me again. You understand my interpretation of justice. You were my enemy, and yet you treated me like a real person, rather than as some mortal monster who preyed upon your kind… the same as what I once saw you. But I don't anymore. Vamp… vampire or not, Miroku," Sango finished, slowly raising her eyes. "I love you."

He breathed in deeply, but he didn't say the normal answer. He didn't tell her that he loved her back. Hearing those words from Sango, they meant more than she would ever know. He had heard women tell him that before, but they hadn't meant that. They had meant that they loved the way he made them feel in bed, when he fed off of them, loved the way he looked or the way he defended their honor… Sango hadn't liked that. She hadn't once said anything about his looks, she wanted to defend herself, she shied away when he advanced on her sexually, and never would she have proposed that he drank her blood until the fear of losing him told her it was time for her last resort.

And had he been stupid enough to accept it, she would have hated every second of it. It would have felt like an eternity of torture, and they would never be able to look at each other in the same way again, because she would have been hurt that he had taken advantage of her moment of worry. Sango would have closed herself off to him, and he never would be able to get her back.

Miroku smiled, and he was so good at lying and covering up his real emotions that he didn't even show his pain as he felt the wood spread through his system, infecting every nook and cranny of his body. "Don't ever regret saying that, Sango. It'll come back and haunt you one day, I can guarantee it."

She smiled, her smile sad, and he wished he could make it happy once again. "I won't, Miroku. I won't."

A new sound broke up, interrupting their private little world. It was the sound of a sharp weapon in cement. A long white line had been drawn in the cement. Sesshomaru held Miroku's sword in his hands, and he lifted the point to lie at Sango's throat.

"Drop the weapon, Slayer," he said in his smooth voice, his gold eyes narrowing at her, disgusted by her presence.

Her hand tightened on the sword, but in the end, she allowed it to drop to Miroku's side. Sango pushed back her hair and stood up, her chin held high and her back straight. She was acting like there wasn't a weapon being held at her throat, and Miroku thought she looked beautiful. Of course, her instincts told her to fight, but for Miroku's plan to work, she needed to die, and his plan _would_ work. As strong as she was, Sesshomaru was always two steps ahead of her.

"It was a very heartfelt confession. So, I've found my very own Romeo and Juliet. A vampire falling in love with a slayer and vice versa." His gold eyes slipped to Miroku, who was growling at him. "Have you tried her blood yet, Miroku? You can have it still. I'll forgive you, you know. You always were one of my favorites. I didn't mean to shoot you, Miroku, I meant to shoot her. I would have never let anything happen to you. You're my child, Miroku. But she is human, and expendable."

His hands clenched. "Fuck you, Sesshomaru. They are people, for fuck's sake! They have hearts and fears and loves the same way we do!"

"They are inferior."

"They're just _different_! Just because something is different doesn't mean it's better or worse!"

He lowered his sword, reaching around Sango's body and grabbing her hair. She let out a grunt of pain when he tilted back her neck. He moved in closer, Miroku's sword still angled at her neck. Miroku's eyes were wide, and he was biting his lip so hard the skin was white and a trickle of blood escaped. His breathing was audible, and Sango knew she had to put some kind of a fight. She needed to make her death look realistic. She grabbed Sesshomaru's shirt and she tried to flip him. She succeeded, but not before the sword plunged into her shoulder.

The fight had begun.

He pulled out the sword from under her collar bone, and she could feel the warm blood trickle down her arm in thick lines. She grabbed the sword while she had a chance and flung it away. It was a hand to hand fight.

He was up before the sword had touched down across the street. Grabbing the arm with the wounded shoulder, he squeezed tightly, and she let out a sound of pain that pleased him. He flung her into the wall so hard that her body left behind an imprint. Miroku gasped at seeing it as pieces of the wall crumbled and fell to the sidewalk.

She groaned as she forced herself up, her head dizzy. She didn't know if she had a concussion or not, but it wouldn't really matter for very long. This fight was going downhill fast. Sango didn't have the energy left in her for another fight. Sesshomaru had always killed her, and Sango hadn't been able to cause him any permanent damage since she had given him the faint scars along his cheeks.

He punched her injured shoulder and she fell down to the ground again, coughing. He waited for her to get up before he attacked her again, but she didn't get up. Pushing herself up on her hands, she swung her hips, and her legs whipped around, knocking Sesshomaru over. She pounced on him, her nails outstretched and letting out a snarl that Miroku could actually almost believe was real. She managed to claw his face before he kicked her away.

He was standing as she struggled to get up. Sango was trying to hold down what little food she had eaten, trying to breathe and clear her eyes from the pain. Over the lifetimes, she'd lost track of just how many broken ribs she'd had, but no matter how high the number, they always hurt like hell.

Sesshomaru reached down and grabbed her wrist, dragging her up and setting her on her feet. He flung her away again. Sango looked like a rag doll as she went flying through the air once more, this time landing closer to Miroku. Her eyes were clouded over when they opened. A bit of clarity returned when she saw Miroku, pale but sturdy, reliable Miroku, looking at her pleadingly, asking her to give up. What he didn't understand was that her last attack had been starting to grapple with Sesshomaru. She didn't have anything else left in her.

Now it was just Sesshomaru toying with her.

He straddled her, putting pressure on her shoulder and making her cry out. She tried to buck him off, but he was deeply rooted on the ground. Her hands fought back as he tried to pin her, trying to lace into her unraveled hair and pull back her head to expose her neck. Tears still poured down her face, tears of frustration. Sesshomaru caught one her hands and he smiled as he applied pressure to it.

Miroku understood that Sesshomaru was having fun torturing her when he heard the snap and crunch of bone fill the street. Sango only let out a small sound of pain. Miroku knew that had it been him, he would have been screaming from the pain. His grey eyes filled with respect for her even more. And his heart began to hate Sesshomaru even more. He cried out, trying to get Sesshomaru to stop, but it was to no use. Sesshomaru only enjoyed it even more, now that he knew he was punishing his prodigal son as well.

The pain was overwhelming. The grappling continued. Sango felt like the stones on the sidewalk were embedded into her skin. She was wheezing in pain and fatigue. Her eyes had lost their liveliness, and they had become hollow. Finally, she knew that her time had come: she couldn't move one arm, and the other he held behind her back. She was on her knees, looking at Miroku, her eyes silently wishing him the best of luck.

Miroku looked horrified, but he understood now. He finally understood the one thing which had kept him from ever really understanding her. He had never understood how she had been able to hate someone so much that she kept coming back to live through hell again and again. But now he did. And he knew that somehow, he had made a difference in her life for the better. Now she believed that not all of them were as bad as Sesshomaru. Some of them were like him, and Inuyasha. His lips shook as he tried to speak, but he saved his words. He couldn't even spare the energy to smile at her encouragingly. But she understood anyways, and smiled at him.

_I do love you, Miroku. Believe me, please believe me. Believe in me_.

'With all my heart,' he mouthed back to her, and his eyes seemed a little livelier. Sango's smile became lighter.

Sesshomaru knelt behind her, his weight keeping her still, his arm keeping hers locked and his warm tongue licked her neck, chuckling. His laughter undulated in deep waves in the empty street. His clawed hands swept back her dark hair as she knelt there, tired and defeated, but still beautiful. Miroku wished he had more energy to spare, to whisper sweet words to her and take her away from everything.

Sesshomaru's eyes glowed deeply, his fangs elongating into delicate, curved weapons. His silver hair fell over Sango's body as he leaned over her. Miroku watched, unable to do anything, his body paralyzed by the poison circulating in his veins. Sesshomaru opened his mouth and bit down.

His bite was nothing like Miroku's had been all those years ago. Sesshomaru bit down hard, and without mercy. Sango let out a sound of pain as his teeth dug into her flesh. She snarled in anger at him, cursing him so hard that her mind ran out of insults and languages very quickly. The color began to drain from her face.

It was painful. It was more than painful. Painful compared to this was a sliver, was a paper cut, things that stung. This was excruciating. It was unbearable. And somehow, she kept from screaming out, as she always did. Her eyes were wrenched shut, her muscles tight as her body continued to try and fight back, pointlessly. Her blood was drawn from her body in greedy gulps. Sesshomaru fed on it, letting her power wash over his body. He had all his mental defenses put up in full, but Sango still slipped in.

Her eyes closed a little more softly as she concentrated her mind, directing the pull she felt. She wanted something new. And she spotted it, lurking deep in the back of his mind, deeper than she had ever been before. Magic, and an immunity to fire. Sango began to copy it greedily, while Sesshomaru was still waiting for her to touch his outer defenses. He was infinitely amused by the anger on Miroku's face, and so he was making a display of killing her, as if she was some trophy animal he had hunted and killed. Sango couldn't hear the fact that Miroku was, in fact, drawing Sesshomaru's attention, swearing and snarling at him still. Sango felt the tears run down her eyes. They burned her cold skin.

'Where is it?' she wondered. She wanted to find the curse. There had to be something between her and Sesshomaru, linking his death to his undoing. She wanted it to happen soon. She wanted Sesshomaru to suffer being a human for as long as he could. She rubbed her mental hands together and grinned wickedly. 'Let's see what this witch fire can do, shall we?' She began pushing the connection between them, heating it with the witch fire, hoping to speed the connection along.

Sango gulped. Her mouth tasted metallic from blood. Her body was numb. Her face was starch white from the blood that was being drawn away from her, out of her body. Her whole body felt like it was burning. Her whole body was screaming, crying out, as blood switched directions and moved against the beating of her heart. That was what caused most of the pain. Her heart still beat out of frustration, her pulse increasing, but the blood was being pulled in a different direction from a stronger source. It tore her body apart as it drained every last drop.

And, as she finished copying what she wanted, she laughed. Her vessels were collapsing. There wasn't any blood in them to keep them full. They were caving in on themselves. That was why the victims of vampires were always so pale when they died. The capillaries near the top of the skin were simply gone. Even her lips were turning color. She couldn't see Miroku anymore, and she was glad. Her whole world was blind. She knew what was happening to her eyes. They were clouding over, losing their color. Within a few minutes of her death, unless she drank vampire blood, they too would cave in. Her heart would cave in. Her brain would simply turn off. Her muscles would contract, spilling bowl and bladder in the process. Death was a messy business, but it was Sango's business.

Miroku had looked so shocked and horrified when Sesshomaru had begun to drink her blood. She didn't want to see Miroku looking like that. He was supposed to be serious as he poured over some old book, or laughing and cracking jokes, not looking nervous because he saw something private like that. 'It's good that we're both dying. If he did live and I saw him, he'd look at me with pity instead of understanding. I don't want his pity.'

But she could still laugh. She knew what was going to happen to Sesshomaru, and she laughed at it, she laughed until blood forced from her collapsing vesicles oozed from the corner of her mouth, until her lungs stopped moving, pushing air in an out of her body. Sango's limp body was dropped on the ground. Her laughter still hung in the air.

Sesshomaru elegantly cleaned her blood from his mouth. He stepped over her body. 'I wonder why she died laughing,' he thought to himself. 'Normally she dies shouting her revenge or plotting quietly. The little bitch…'

He looked at Miroku, squatting beside his son. He folded his hands in front of him, like an immaculate praying mantis, his silver hair falling down evenly on both sides of his haunting face. Miroku thought it was disgusting that he could fight and come out looking perfect.

"I was coming to tell you that the spell to make vampires walk in the sun is being completed as we speak. I was going to give it to you. You were always such a good child, Miroku, and then I arrived here and found out that you loved the Slayer… something had to be done. But I had known for a long time, Miroku. I am Sesshomaru. I _know_," he said, in relation to the surprised look that Miroku was giving him. "Did you really think you hide such intense dreams from me? Do you really think I wouldn't keep tabs on everything you do? Since when has bringing a sick girl soup been a plan to turn her into a vampire? Were you aware of the smell of lust that followed you every time you went out to see the Slayer? Do you really think I wouldn't watch you and everything you do? Including keeping tabs on that little witch you so fawned over?"

He smiled cruelly. "She's a bit young, but when have I ever had a problem around young children? She'll be my best hunter, Miroku, even better than you or Inuyasha. She won't need to seduce or to fight, she'll just look cute, and flock her prey to her. She'll be so entertaining to train, little Rin. I will capture her in a real-life photograph, and I'll never let her out of my sight again. I've learned my lesson with you and Inuyasha, Miroku. She won't ever leave my side again. She'll be mine, Miroku. I'll make her forget that _you_ ever existed." He grinned cruelly, and the way his lips moved when he spoke made his words quite clear in their meaning. "I'll make her forget you anyway I have to."

"You _bastard_!" Miroku glared at his sire furiously, his grey eyes almost looking normal again as they darkened from anger. He spat in Sesshomaru's face. The silver-haired man wiped it off and stood, looking down at him, disgusted. He was so busy being mad, he didn't notice the changes as they began to happen. Miroku was also keeping his attention on himself, rather than on Sesshomaru. "If you even lay one finger on her, I swear to god that I'll hunt you down myself!" he roared, his words painful as they came out from his burning lungs.

"You foolish boy!" he sneered, kicking Miroku in the ribs. The younger vampire winced and held his side in pain. His ribs were broken, from that simple kick.

'Please, don't let him kill me. I have to hold one just a little bit longer… just a little bit longer…!'

"I can't believe what happened to Inuyasha! I thought that boy had more common sense than that! But now I see that it was really all _your_ fault." His upper lip was curled in a look of abhorrence. He shuddered, repulsed at the idea of being human. "I thought I had taught you two better. Human beings are weak and pathetic creatures. They are nothing but a virus on this earth, and _we_ are the cure. And both of you two were the ones that fell…. My protégées. I had so many hopes for you two." He sighed.

"No matter. I will lose you and your sibling, but _I_ will still be here, and I am the original." He let out a little laugh, if one could call such a derisive sound a real laugh. "I will always be here, Miroku. Sango will never succeed in ridding vampire from the world. She's stupid for trying. No matter how many of us she kills, I will still be here, and I will still make more vampires, so there will always be at least one vampire for her to kill, somewhere in the world. Me." He lifted his hand and brushed his hair back from his face.

"I transcend nature, Miroku. I am _immortal_. When nature has faded into nothingness, when trees which were saplings when I was young have fallen and turned to dust, when the land has changed and human beings are no more, when the world has ended, I, Sesshomaru, will still remain." His eyes were fierce, but not as frightening as normal. "I will always be, Miroku. And you, you will die, with your sibling and your bitch in some empty street in the dead of night, and no one will even care."

He grinned, but it wasn't as frightening as normal. In fact, it looked a little crazy. "I alone here, I alone here am immortal…"

"Guess again, Sesshomaru," he quipped, grinning. Miroku gestured to Sesshomaru's body.

He looked down at his body, at his hands. His claws were gone. He had normal, human hands. He flexed his muscles, trying to extend his claws. His claws had vanished. His skin wasn't the same. He could see the cracks in his skin, and his skin was dry. He reached back and drew some of his hair over his broad shoulder. Rather than snow-white hair, he found that it had turned coal black.

Sesshomaru, for the first time in his long life, felt panic.

He was human.

"What? What is this? How can this be? I'm supposed to be immortal! I'm supposed to be immortal!"

His cries stopped as he suddenly felt something sharp plunge into his chest. He felt pain unlike anything he had before. How could he have mocked humans for feeling pain, for dying with tears in their eyes right in front of him, when _this_ had been what it must have felt like for them? He began to feel cold. Sesshomaru looked down. Sango's sword had stabbed his heart, sliding cleanly between the ribs as it slanted upwards. Miroku's hand held the hilt, a look of fury on his face so intense it haunted Sesshomaru's gaze as the world began to turn black. Miroku's jaw was achingly tight, and he released the sword, crawling away from Sesshomaru to once again lie half on his back, supporting himself on shaking arms.

He had lunged forward, grabbed the sword that lay beside him, and he'd stabbed Sesshomaru.

It was the ultimate betrayal. Sesshomaru's hands shook not with pain, but with rage. He tried to struggle forward and stab Miroku, even though he knew that Miroku would be following his soul into hell. He just wanted to cause the vampire more pain, to make his last moments of life as painful as his were, to get in the last word…

But the pain was too much, and he simply collapsed, caving in on himself like a broken puppet. He fell, dead, with a heavy thud.

Miroku eyed the body. He sneered at it, wrapping his arms around himself like a little kid. He was trying to hide himself from the sudden pain and loneliness he felt. And the guilt. As much as he had hated Sesshomaru, the vampire had been a father to him almost his entire life. It had been Sesshomaru who had started teaching him about science, geography, law, and women. He had been a large influence on his life, and Miroku had killed him for it.

He curled up into a ball, and for a long time he stared hatefully at the body in front of him. "You always did make certain that we could kill humans, Sesshomaru. You ingrained it into us. You made us think that they were weak, brainwashing into thinking that they were here just for our amusements. I won't kill a human ever again, Sesshomaru, just to spite you. But the lessons you taught Inuyasha and I were good for one thing, at least: killing you, you sick bastard."

Thinking of his brother made Miroku start to crumble again. He wasn't even aware of the tears on his cheeks as he waited for death to claim him and take him away from his rapidly poisoning body. Inuyasha hadn't deserved his fate. For the last five hundred years, Inuyasha had been poisoned by Sesshomaru, warping his sense of self and reality. Deep down, he was nothing but a teenager, caught in confusion between adulthood and his own shattered world. He was caught as a child. He had deserved the chance to sort his mind out, and discover the strong person he had been, the child who had put up so much resistance when Miroku first tried to brush his hair, the little kid that had hated taking baths because he felt guilty about using up fresh water… he should have had a chance to find out more about who he had been and could be again without Sesshomaru in his life.

And as for Sango… he couldn't even stand to look at her body. He had asked for her to die, to initiate the spell. But that had been uncalled for. He shouldn't have done it. And now that he understood why she hated Sesshomaru so much, the hell that he had put her through in so many lifetimes, he wished that he hadn't with all his heart. He would die a thousand times over if she would just come back to him and enjoy this life a little bit longer, to smile for him one more time…

He had found the spell long ago. But it wouldn't work for him. It was a spell requiring a human sacrifice. Kagome had used herself as the sacrifice, and it was reflected back on the vampire who killed the sacrificial victim. As punishment, it turned them human. The thing was, the sacrifice had to be willing. Kagome had been willing, as had Sango. Miroku could not find a human willing to die just so he could be made human. For one, he wasn't supposed to tell humans he was a vampire. And secondly, those who did find out, even the women who shared his bed who claimed to love him with all their hearts, every ounce of their beings, were too afraid and too selfish to die for him. He never told them that their fates were sealed anyway for finding out about his condition. He just nodded, and slept with them one last time as they beckoned him to bed, and they never got the chance to wake up in the morning.

But Miroku did. Miroku managed to make it until the first rays of sunlight began to turn the black sky a shade of electric blue, brighter than anything he had ever seen before. The world was crisp, and pure, and had somehow remained untouched despite the small war that had broken out during the night. The air was clean and had a sharp edge to it. Birdsong began to waft through the air as well as the musky scent that came from the falling autumn leaves. Miroku breathed in deeply, his face smiling despite the way his body kept caving in, kept shrinking and become harder and more mummy-like as, like Sango, the caverns and network of veins in his body could not sustain him any more, destroyed by the wood that had settled into his body. He coughed as he smiled.

'I'm going to see his sunrise,' he thought, feeling a burst of happiness inside his broken heart. 'Sango, I'm going to see a sunrise.'

The light broke on a new day, greeted with every color of the rainbow and with every type of birdsong imaginable.

Miroku never got to see it, but he died with that final thought on his mind.


	27. In the End

**The Blooded**

AN: Sadly, the last story in the posting-spree… TB. God! It's over! It's finally over! J… j… (_howls_) Noooo! I don't want it to end! I had so much fun and… and… aww! Big group hug, everyone who reviewed! If it wasn't for you guys, I never would have had the encouragement to finish this story! (_cries_)

DarkHeartKeyBlade: Sorry, but Miroku is currently deader than a doorbell.

iLOVEcheese: ah... Yeah… (_shifty__ eyes_)

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Ah, Peter Pan… what can't Mr. Barrie teach us? Anyway, I am very glad you liked Sesshy as a bad guy. I feel like I can't writ bad guys, so to hear that he's hateable is a good thing.

Stripe: Ta-da! Epilogue, so you can find out exactly what the epilogue is yourself. (_smiles_)

Just another review: You know… I didn't get any flames for that chapter. It… amazes me. I mean, the people who always review my chapters are awesome reviewers whom I trust and who seem to support me and offer constructive criticisms, but I figured that there would at least get to the end and hate me for it. Apparently I misjudged them, for which I apologize.

Starzki: While I hate to feel like I'm copying the Bard, it's not Kohalu who lives to tell the story… it's Kouga! (You'll see, you'll see….) and um…. If you're at work, I apologize! A LOT!

Chad: But… but… _this_ is the ending! And it's happy! And funny! I swear to god it is! And clichéd too! I… I know, I don't normally like clichés, and I'm trying to stay away from them as much as possible, but I really did want to give this story and happy ending and just the ending fit _so well_ that I didn't care if it was clichéd!

Siren: I need more inspiration (and a plot) for the next MS story I'm planning on writing, so I'm afraid that for now all you're going to have to read is CiA and LR.

Enjoy, everyone! Thank you so very much for all the great reviews! (_hugs__ and kisses for everyone!_)

**Epilogue:**

**In the End**

In the End….

Kohaku was never quite able to get over his sister's death. He kept telling himself: 'I was her twin. I should have known something would happen, that something was happening. I should have been there with her. I should have done something.' He knew that had he interfered, he could have died too, but such thoughts made him feel as if he could have made a difference, they consoled him, and so he cherished them.

He kept his promise to Sango. He looked after his mother. They were both helped along by Rin and Mrs. Higurashi, who were both in grieving themselves. Often, Rin wondered if she should tell her brother that Sango had died to make the world a better place, but she always changed her mind. If she actually said that, he would know she had some kind of involvement regarding the events of Sango's death.

Rin hated keeping the secret from him, but she, like Sango, wanted to keep him whole and untouched from the secret life of vampires. Some people could never deal with discovering it was real, and it broke them, and Rin didn't want to see Kohaku broken. She knew it would end that way, too. He had a special connection with Sango, and to know that his older twin had died and been reincarnated once again so that she could continue killing these monsters that lived along side them would break his heart.

Rin, as much as she loved Kohaku, knew she didn't have the power to fix a broken heart. No magic did.

But maybe love did...

In the end…

Love was what had helped Mrs. Higurashi. She had been nearly crushed by Kagome's death. First she had lost Souta, and then she had lost Kagome. She wondered what she had ever done wrong to deserve that kind of pain in her life, and she wondered if things made have been different if she had only done something differently. She wondered as Kohaku wondered. Such were the questions of a mortal life, a life with an end, without anytime or a chance to go through the same life again and be different, act differently, to see if it really _would_ change the outcome.

Sango's mother helped her through it. They became as close as sister in the years after Sango and Kagome's deaths. They cried at night together, and they were silent together as they both worried and fretted, and they both encouraged each other to go back into the real world.

Mrs. Higurashi had been scared to open the shop. It remained closed for one full year after Kagome's death, and nearly three extra months. The following December, Rin had knocked on Mrs. Higurashi's door. She had answered with bags under her eyes and a mug of coffee in her hand.

Rin, much to her chagrin, looked very much like Kagome. Her hair was dark and covered in a layer of snowflakes. Her eyes had been bright, though brown instead of blue, and she was even wearing some of Kagome's clothes. Mrs. H had given them to her after going through Kagome's closet and finding things that Kagome would have loved for Rin to have. After all, she was such a sweet little girl, and she knew full well that Rin was a witch. Often, she had to remind herself, in the most painful, direct methods she knew, to remind herself that Rin wasn't Kagome.

"Mrs. H," Rin had asked with a smile, "when are you going to open the shop? I need things for my spell." She reached into her canvas bag and pulled out one of Kagome's more advanced spell books. "Tomorrow is the winter solstice. I'd like to be able to cast an intricate spell tomorrow, when the power of the Earth is at her most this time of year. But I need the ingredients, and I was wondering if you could help me."

Mrs. Higurashi smiled tearfully and she pulled the key off of the key holder in the hallway. She held the door open for Rin. "Give me a moment, Rin, dear. I need to get dressed. Then we'll go open up the shop and see what you can do."

It wasn't long after that when Rin came out of the broom closet. Most of the people she had called friends left her, but by this time she was attending the local college for nursing, and nobody else really cared. Kohaku and Kouga stuck by her. She had known Kohaku would stick by her. He always did, just like she was always there for him.

In the End….

Both Kohaku and Rin were there for Kouga as well. School, life, was different without his wisecracks and her smiling face. They had been shocked at how silent Kouga was now, without his beloved Kagome. Before, everybody had known him. He could strike up a conversation with the kid from the audio-visual room, or the coolest kid on campus, and no one would care. He had been an exception to every single school rule that had ever existed. But after Kagome left him, he kept his eyes down. He had started hanging out with Rin and Kohaku, who gladly accepted him. The doctors prescribed drugs after drugs to try and rid him of depression and nightmares. His most common one was where he was at Kagome's grave, digging there frantically and screaming that they had buried her alive, and that she wasn't really dead.

Eventually, he claimed that they stopped as he grew up. He became more focused on schoolwork and managed to get into college. Without prompting from Rin, who had been concerned about the bottles of drugs lining his medicine cabinet for a long time, he picked up every single one of them and threw them out. Kagome would never have wanted them to be putting so much shit into his body. And they weren't really helping. Shutting down parts of his mind wouldn't help him get over the fact that his best friend was gone. Facing reality would.

He went out, and he faced reality. He did everything he could to get as much reality as he could. He volunteered with Rin in the local hospital, in the kid's section. The kids loved him there, and that was when he decided that he wanted a whole litter of kids. He'd go out shopping just to get things for his visits to the kid's room, buying face paints and balloons. Through them, his life began to get better. And he felt good that he and Rin were even keeping an eye out for Sango's work, keeping an eye out for vampire marks and missing pints of blood. But they had never had another problem with vampires again.

His first day back at school had been hell, however, before Kouga could make such an improvement to his life. The first day that he had gone back to school after Kagome's death, he had run into the school and had expected to see her there with her treats for him, as she always was, and he was confused when he didn't see her in the hallways. Then he painfully remembered that she was dead. She would never been in the hallways again.

No more sweets before class. No more lunches in the library. No more wise cracks in science class.

He stuck close by Rin and Kohaku. The three of them were inseparable in their final years of high school. They didn't leave each other until after all of them had graduated and that final summer of freedom had passed. Rin stayed at home to study nursing. Kohaku and Kouga both went two cities away to attend university, the first studying child psychology and the second studying English and journalism so he could be a writer.

Kouga continued selling pot.

He did continue to smoke it, though he had cut back. He steered away from alcohol, as did Kohaku, but the two boys thoroughly enjoy their candy binges on a regular basis.

University was where he met the second love of his life. They met at a party for their floor in the dorm rooms. Kohaku was the one who persuaded him to get closer to her, trying every approach possibly. Eventually, Kouga decided that it was time to talk to girls again, and Kouga gave her some cheesy pick up line he regretted as soon as he had said it.

She had shaken her long red hair, which, he noted, she wore up in childish pig tails. It was cute, and her laugh was infectious. "Do you really expect me to all for that?"

"No. You're a University student, right? So you can't be that stupid. But it was the only way I could think of coming over here and making you smile at me, so I sacrificed myself on the wheel of dignity and decided to make an ass out of myself." He put down his drink and held out his hand for her. "My name's Kouga."

She didn't take it immediately. "I know you. You're in my introductory English class. You're the one who got into a fight with the teacher on the first day of class and she kicked you out." She smiled when Kouga blushed. Her eye were blue, though not as unadulterated or as bright as Kagome's had been. They kind of had this green tinge to them. "What was the argument again?"

"Ah… that she had a warped perception of feminism. The way that she was making the course sound, it made it sound like the whole course was feminist, but the kind of feminism that was anti-male. My argument was that real feminism wasn't anti-male, it was pro-eqaulity and that there was a difference between the two." For some reason, he left his hand out there, waiting for her to shake it. "Feminism should aim at raising women in society world wide on the same political, social, and education levels as men, because not all women get that opportunity. Instead, what she was proposing was that women were better then men because men were a bunch of slobbering assholes."

She raised an eyebrow, smiling at him. "That sounds a bit militant, Kouga. Are you thinking of changing sides?"

"I like having a penis, thank you," he said, retracting his hands. His smile vanished with the idea of losing his penis. That was an unfair blow, aiming a guy's genitals. But she laughed at him and he felt like maybe it had been worth the feeling of discomfort.

"I just happen to have known a lot of women in my life, and many of them could kick my ass. In fact, you see that guy over there? His girlfriend, Rin, at one point managed to wrestle me to the ground and pin me down and held me hostage until I told her where I kept my stash of sugar. No sex is better than the other. We all deserve to be on the same lines, regardless of anything. I mean, do you realize that in some places, if you say the word 'dark' in connotation with evil, like 'dark magic' you can get thrown in jail? And yet look at the things we say to women, about women, without any repercussions."

Ayame was surprised. She hadn't expected him to be so articulate. Kouga looked a bit like a hippy, with his baggy shirt and the glasses in his dark hair, and his goatee. But he opened his mouth and he alternated between being insightful and funny. She liked the combination. "Don't you think that's a little idealistic?"

He shrugged. "A guy has to have something to believe in."

She looked at him a moment and then put down her drink. Ayame slid up next to him, looking up at him with wide eyes and pressing her body against his. She spoke in a husky voice that almost made Kouga drop his drink. "In that case Kouga, what with believing in equality and all… I have to ask… how do you get into those pants? They're so tight. Better question… how do _I_ get into them?"

He stared at her, and then he laughed, making her smile. He wagged a finger at her, winking. "Oh no, love, I don't do it with just any bird. I like knowing her name first."

"Ayame," she replied, nodding her head a little in greeting. His arm closed around her shoulders.

"Great. _Now_ we can shag." Laughing, they disappeared from the party and headed for Kouga's apartment. When they got there, she saw his Spider-man collection and his X-Men collection and they stayed up to four am discussing Spidey versus the X-Men, both in storylines and characters, as well as how society saw them.

Kouga knew he was in love.

In the End…

The chief closed all the files regarding Kuranosuke, Kagome, Inuyasha, Kikyo, Sango, Miroku, and Sesshomaru. He couldn't clear anyone's name of anything, as much as he tried to. In the end, he found out the branch of government that Kikyo had come from, and sent them the files. They sorted everything out, or so they promised him.

Several years later, he was sitting and his desk and became curious. He began riffling through the computers, and he pulled up Kagome's file. According to the file, she had died of a broken neck and had been killed by a man named Ranma Saotome. He followed that lead and came to Ranma. The man in the picture had black hair, his eyes closed and his body white with death. The man had died by being stabbed.

He files went on and on. They were dizzying. The cop turned off the files, sipping his coffee and groaning as he got out of the creaking chair. He walked to the open box of donuts in the staff room. "I'm getting to old for this," he told himself, grabbing a plain donut and heading back to his desk to do some paper work.

He knew that if he dug into the files a little bit more, there would be some secret waiting for him, but his subconscious always stopped him from getting too far into things. That world was dangerous, and he was an old man. He didn't want his life disrupted by new things. New things were frightening.

He went on doing his mundane paperwork.

In the End…

Kohaku and Rin were married. Mrs. Higurashi gave the bride away, and the leader of the coven that Rin had joined performed the ceremony. Naraku would have been fit to be tied if he had seen his daughter getting married in a cedar grove as opposed to under a cross, but he had died the year before in a car crash and he could say or do nothing.

They had two children, an older boy and a young girl. They had happy lives, although they didn't get to spend many family moments together. Kohaku worked as a child psychologist, and he loved little kids, and often did some work with the police when therapy was needed for kids who had undergone traumatic events. Rin worked in the hospital, and was the cheeriest girl anyone had ever seen. Everyone loved her, and many asked her how she could be so cheerful all the time. She always smiled and told them it was because she had a lot for which to be thankful.

Ayame and Kouga didn't get married. They, has he had always preferred saying, mated. They had four kids, and Kouga was a stay at home dad as he wrote books. They never one any Pulitzers, but he wrote a story inspired by Sango and it was number one on the New York Times list. It stayed there for almost two years. Ayame was a teacher in the local high school, and they took over the farm. He was happy to have his kids grow up in the same home that he had.

They woke up every day and teased each other. Their house was simple, and money was always tight, but their house was filled with laughter and warmth.

Kouga even gave up pot for her.

He didn't need anything to distort his reality any more. He loved it, and he embraced it, even the dead of night when the wolves howled and Ayame bit him, he embraced it all, because it was _his_.

They all had their happy endings, but there was still a small fraction of them that hated themselves for having a happy life. After all, Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango and Miroku had never gotten their happy ending.

In the End…

Inuyasha was happy.

Kagome was happy.

They were together and they had an eternity.

That was all that needed to be said.

That, and Inuyasha was almost kicked out of heaven. He found out that trying to protect Kagome and the guilt he had carried and never voiced, had always counted for something. He hadn't been expecting to see Heaven, and as soon as he found out where he was, he looked at Kagome. "No _fucking_ way!"

Heaven was always a little bit more interesting after that.

In the End…

Sango was reincarnated, as she always was.

And Miroku didn't go peacefully into the after life.

In the End…

Matt sat in a Tim Horton's. It was late at night, and he thanked all the gods he knew that somebody had decided to make the Canadian coffee shop open twenty four hours a day. He sipped a coffee from one of their mugs. The girls behind the cash eyed him, watching the way his long legs were wrapped over one another and stretched out under the table. His hands, as slender as they were, looked strong, and he held a book in his other hand, reading it. It was Kouga's book, the bestseller.

His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail. His eyes scanned the pages of the book, and slipped up whenever he heard one of the waitresses say anything. They were a light shade of grey. Matthew always felt rather comfortable in his skin.

"He's like a large cat," one of the women purred to her coworker. "He comes in here just about every night. He orders the same thing, and then he sits there and reads a different book. He seems to really like books about vampires. Sometimes he laughs in the middle of one, as if it's the funniest thing he's ever heard. I think he's waiting for someone."

"I wish he were waiting for me," the coworker sighed dreamily. Sixteen year old Matthew smiled charmingly behind his book, hearing everything there were saying, but he did feel a little sad.

'I wish I were waiting for you too. Where is she? I know she should be here… I can feel it. Where is she?'

The door opened and closed. Matthew still had his nose stuck firmly in his book. The girl who entered didn't even glance at him, but his eyes followed her hungrily. They drank in her sight, her scent. He was swimming with happiness, watching her move, the swaying grace in her hips, the cute way her short, sandy hair danced as she walked. She pulled her change from her back pocket, drawing his gaze from her face. He sighed.

And she still had a great ass.

She ordered her coffee and she sat down, taking a break. She sat all the way across the room from him, and put her legs up on the chair beside her. He could see the steak hidden in her sock.

Closing his book, he took his drink and got up. He couldn't stop smiling like an idiot. He moved with gracefulness, the same way she did. Many people had thought Matthew was a dancer, and he would admit that he would have made a wonderful dancer. It was just natural, however, to move like that. He found it natural to move like a predator, to be aware of his own body, to smile and hold his head just so, to speak in a smooth voice without any effort, to be sensuous and almost careless-looking while being aware of his surroundings.

He didn't make a sound, but his shadow fell over her table as she was putting down her mug. She stared down at it, mad that she had been interrupted. He was already grinning as she turned around to look up at him. Matthew beat her to speaking first.

"You don't regret it, do you?" His mouth felt suddenly felt very dry as he finished. He licked his lips, sliding down across from her so that she didn't hurt her neck from staring at him. "Sango."

Her mouth had dropped open. She was staring at him with a look so close to being one of horror that he felt hurt. She struggled to speak, reaching out across the table as if to touch his face, and stopping at the last second. She began to look confused. "M… Miroku?"

"I'm called Matthew now," he told her with a wink.

Her eyes scanned her up and down. They were a wonderful shade of green, as hard as jade or emeralds, but when she looked at him they softened until they looked as inviting as a lush forest. He instantly loved green eyes. "But… but you're…" Her eyes danced around his broad form. He knew that she was examining his aura. "You're _human_."

Her hand was still reached out. He laid his book down beside him and took her hand in his. He pressed it against his cheek. Her hand felt clammy, but he didn't care. Her fingers caressed him back as she felt the warmth through his skin. "I came back."

She shook her head. "Why would you do that, Miroku? I mean…"

I laughed. "You can continue calling me that. You can call me anything you want, Sango. Can I keep calling you Sango? I love saying your name. Nothing could sound so beautiful that that name."

Sango didn't answer. Her tongue darted out, licking her bottom lip nervously. She leaned down a little more, her eyes glowing in the fluorescent lights of the coffee shop. "Why would you come back, Miroku?" He loved how she said his name. It sounded so perfect coming from her.

"There are three things that will keep a soul coming back again and again into this world, Sango. One is hatred, the kind of deep hatred that you have for vampires. The other is justice. We both have that. We both want to help protect this world, protect the laws and keep it safe for people. The other…" He swallowed hard, his eyes staring into her. She was surprised to see that his eyes looked so similar to how they had when he was a vampire. Back then they had been grey washed with violets. Now they were flecked with pieces of sapphire.

"The other is love, Sango. A love so strong that it makes someone crazy enough to come back into this world because they care for another soul deeply. They would risk all the pain in this life, all the ups and down in life, to make that person smile, to make that person laugh. They feel the need to be with that person no matter what, to tell them it will be okay, to fight beside them and help ease their burden, to be their best friend and their lover and whatever else they need, to remind them when the world becomes too much that there is something _good_ out there in the world. That… that is what I have."

Tears began to roll over the curve of her blushing cheek. She lowered her eyes, and he reached over, lifting up her head so he could look at her. She looked beautiful when she cried. His voice was soft, deep and rolling as he stared at her.

"I love you, Sango. I have from the moment I first saw into your mind. I respected you from the first moment I met you. I was stupid. I did stupid things, said stupid things. I hope that you'll be able to forgive me, one day. Because I do love you. You're perfect for me. You're the only person, in seven hundred years, who spent time with me just doing simple things, not using me for your own gains. You challenge me, and I like being challenged. You… are so perfect."

"No," she sobbed quietly, "I'm not. I'm filled with hate. I'm bitter. I'm horrible for someone like you."

He felt a brief pain at her words. His gentle voice continued. "Then why did you tell me that you love me?"

"Because I do!" she cried, lunging across the table and holding him. He slipped around to sit next to her in their little booth, holding her gently. She cried tears of happiness. "I love you so much, Miroku! You say things, and you smile at me, and I can never hate you, never! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry that I'm not perfect for you, but I love all the same!"

He kissed her hair, comforting her, they way he had been made to do. "Yes, you are Sango. I was made for you. There's balance in the universe, and you upset it, becoming the Slayer. It was only a matter of time before another one was born: someone to help protect humans, who could understand your hate, who could be whatever you needed, someone who could help shoulder your burden, someone who was your shadow, alike but similar to you. A fighter, and a lover; a male instead of a female; a human with powers of the night; someone as intelligent as you, someone to make you smile. Me, Sango. We were made for each other."

But she wasn't listening to him. She lifted her head, tear stains on her rosy cheeks as she tried to sort through her confusion. "Powers…"

"Well," he chuckled, "I couldn't be entirely human, otherwise I couldn't fight beside you, right? I still retain all of my original powers that I had when I died all those years ago. So I can still read your thoughts, Sango, and we can do all that stuff, all the things you wanted to do. We'll live a longer life. You can go to University and show up all your teachers. I'll kiss you again; trust me, I'll kiss you a lot. We'll fight vampires. I'll take you to prom. And I'll be there in the next life for you."

Sango kissed his cheek. "I missed you, Miroku. I really did."

"I missed you too. When I saw my first sunrise, I wished that you could have been there to share it with me. It didn't feel right, sharing something so momentous by myself."

They talked in whispered voices for a long time. She looked down at her watch when it went off and gulped down the rest of her coffee. "Sorry, Miroku, I need to go." She tried to get out of the booth, but he wouldn't move to let her out.

"You haven't even told me your name yet, Sango. How will I know how to find you again? It took me sixteen years to wait for you to get a coffee."

Sango laughed a little at that, looking at him with respect for his patience. She ran the words over and over in her head. "You waited for me to get a _coffee_?"

He shrugged, smiling that charming, slightly goofy smile, his grey eyes sparkling. "It seemed like a logical idea at the time, but the logic of a fourteen year old is quite different from the logic of a sixteen year old. Please, Sango?" She looked directly at him, and her mind brushed his. A name, an address, and a phone number appeared in his mind, drifting there gently, as if they had been blown with a kiss. He sighed. Miroku loved being telepathic. He stared at her, at the way her short hair curled around her ears, and he stroked her cheek, his eyes drifting her lips. "Jaenelle. I like it. It's beautiful."

"My friends call me Janie. I have friends again, Miroku." She loved the way he said her name, loved the way everything about him wrapped around them, tying them together inseparably.

"I don't like that, Sango. It's too much like Jamie, it's too ambiguous. Jaenelle is most obviously female, the same way you are." He came closer, and his lips touched hers. She closed her eyes, leaning into his kiss. It felt almost… inexperienced. It was shy, nervous, and sweet. It was so sweet Sango felt like she was dying of pure happiness. It was exactly the kind of kiss she had always wanted. He drew away, smiling at her with a wonderful smile, the kind of smile she had always dreamed of seeing after she had just received such a sweet kiss.

He slid out of the booth, and she followed. She fixed her clothes. Sango looked up at him hopefully. "You'll call me when you get home from school tomorrow?" He nodded and he kissed her cheek. The women behind the counter were almost swooning from the real-life love scene they were watching. Sango held his hand briefly, squeezing in thanks, and she grinned. "I want to get together and have that real, honorable fight you've been talking about. Maybe we could teach each other a few new moves?"

"I'd like that…" She turned to leave , but then he remembered something he had been meaning to ask her. "Jaenelle! Wait a moment!" He ran to the door, and he looked at her hopefully. He once again took her hand, holding it against his chest. "Jaenelle… Sango… now that I am human and I can finally have children again… would you do me the honor of bearing my children?"

She stared at him in shock. Then she lifted her hand, and slapped his cheek lightly. Sango, if she wanted, could have slapped him so hard that the sound of her hand connecting with his cheek could have shattered the windows. "Pervert," she snapped, turning away from him.

She walked out the building, and then turned back a moment later, narrowing her eyes at him, and looking a little sad as he stood there, rubbing his cheek. "You're still going to phone me, right?" He nodded, smiling deliriously. Sango smiled back.

Her future had never looked so good. He was right: they were made from each other. She'd never be alone again.

Even if she _was_ stuck with a perverted ex-monk, she would never be alone, and she'd always be loved.


End file.
